Rahul Gandhi Excommunicated from Hinduism Over Manusmriti Comments

On Tuesday, Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati from Jyotirmath announced that Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been “excommunicated” from the Hindu religion because he insulted the Manusmriti. The religious leader explained that the Manusmriti is an important text in Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) and that Rahul made disrespectful comments about it during a session in Parliament.

The Shankaracharya mentioned that a formal notice was sent to Rahul Gandhi asking him to apologize for his remarks, but they did not hear back from him. He stated, “Rahul Gandhi has been officially excommunicated from Hinduism.”

Earlier this year, during a Parliament session, Rahul Gandhi criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming they follow the Manusmriti instead of the Constitution of India. He also pointed out his visit to Hathras, where he met the family of a victim of gang-rape, saying, “The criminals are free, while the victim’s family is in hiding. The Constitution doesn’t say that criminals should be free; this is written in your Manusmriti.”

Rahul also accused the BJP of supporting the ideas of Hindutva leader VD Savarkar, which he believes go against the Constitution. He said, “There is a battle in India today. On one side, we have supporters of the Constitution, like Periyar from Tamil Nadu, Jyotiba Phule from Maharashtra, and Gandhi from Gujarat.” He added that although the BJP praises these leaders, they actually want to return to a past way of ruling.