Shankaracharya ‘excommunicates’ Rahul Gandhi from Hinduism for insulting Manusmriti
The religious head described the Manusmriti as the core of Sanatana Dharma and said that Rahul Gandhi had not apologised for comments made against it by him.
Jyotirmath's Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati on Tuesday declared that Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had been “excommunicated” from the Hindu religion for insulting the Manusmriti, reported news agency PTI.
The religious leader stated that the Manusmriti was the foundation of Sanatan Dharma and that Rahul Gandhi had made offensive remarks about it in Lok Sabha proceedings.
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The Shankaracharya also claimed that a notice had been issued to the Congress leader calling for him to apologise but they had not received any response.
"Rahul Gandhi has been formally excommunicated from Hinduism by the Shankaracharya Math," the Shankaracharya of Jyotirpeeth Badrinath Dham announced at his Math in Kankhal.
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"He was also given a notice in this regard by the Shankaracharya Math, but he neither apologised for it nor gave any reply to the notice. That is why he has been formally excommunicated from Hinduism by the Shankaracharya Math," the Shankaracharya added.
Rahul Gandhi's remark on Manusmriti
In a parliament session earlier this year, Rahul Gandhi had blasted the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming that they followed the Manusmriti and not the Constitution of India.
In a scathing attack on the government, he referenced his visit to Hathras, where he met the family of an alleged gang-rape victim.
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Gandhi said, “The culprits are roaming around and the girl’s family are confined at home. Where is it written in Constitution that the culprit will roam free? This is written in your book Manusmriti."
He also accused the BJP of following the ideology of Hindutva leader VD Savarkar, which he claimed was antithetical to the principles enshrined in the Constitution.
“There is a battle taking place today in India. On this side, we have defenders of the idea of the Constitution. From each state we have one. From Tamil Nadu we have Periyar, from Maharashtra we have Jyotiba Phule, from Gujarat we have Gandhi,” he said, adding that while the BJP lauded these figures publicly, they actually wanted India “to be run the way it used to be run earlier.”
