Now Reading: Owaisi attacks RSS, BJP over Manusmriti, defends Ambedkar Constitution
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Owaisi attacks RSS, BJP over Manusmriti, defends Ambedkar Constitution
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has accused the RSS and BJP of favouring the Manusmriti over the Indian Constitution drafted by B.R. Ambedkar. Speaking at a religious event in Hyderabad, Owaisi cited an…
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has accused the RSS and BJP of favouring the Manusmriti over the Indian Constitution drafted by B.R. Ambedkar. Speaking at a religious event in Hyderabad, Owaisi cited an RSS mouthpiece that reportedly criticised the Constitution four days after its adoption on 26 November 1949, calling for the Manusmriti instead. He also attacked Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, alleging Savarkar wrote to the British seeking release from the Andaman jail while Muslim freedom fighters endured hardships.
Owaisi claimed the first prisoner sent to the Andaman Islands was Maulvi Alauddin, the Imam of Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, and not any ancestor of BJP or RSS supporters. His remarks come as the BJP and Congress clash over the Manusmriti's place in India's constitutional discourse. Last week, Rahul Gandhi criticised a Manusmriti passage restricting women's independence, prompting BJP leaders to accuse him of undermining India's traditions.
The political row has revived debates over constitutional values, social equality, and competing interpretations of India's cultural history ahead of upcoming assembly elections.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Manusmriti, a 2,000-year-old legal code, has been a flashpoint in Indian politics since the colonial era when British administrators used it to frame Hindu personal law. B.R. Ambedkar publicly burned copies of the text in 1927, calling it a justification for caste oppression. The RSS has historically revered it as a pillar of Hindu tradition, while Ambedkar's Constitution explicitly abolished caste discrimination. The current row mirrors a 2023 confrontation when Rahul Gandhi linked the Manusmriti to patriarchal norms during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. With both the BJP and Congress now mobilising around it ahead of 2026 assembly polls in five states, the text has become a proxy war over which party owns India's founding values. The election commission may face complaints over hate speech claims from either side before the code of conduct kicks in.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
