RSS and BJP’s firm steps toward Manusmriti….

BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde made a statement a few days before, "We will exceed 400 this time, to save Hindu dharma, we wish to make major upgrades to the constitution." 

Head of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Committee Dr. Bibek Debroy wrote an article in a newspaper on August 15, 2023 and told how the current constitution needs to be changed. 

The constitution, framed under the presidency of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, if guarantees the values ​​of sovereignty, secularism, democracy and republic, then what do these people really want, who feel the need to change the constitution to 'save Hinduism?’ Manusmriti? Yes, the Hindu dharma supporters want Manusmriti law in this country. 

This is not a baseless statement. Before this, some solid steps have been taken towards Manusmriti and that too from the threshold of the judiciary itself! The constitution ensures that people enjoy equal rights, but now the backward class people may once again be subjected to a degraded life and once again women will find themselves confined to the traditional roles of sarees, mangalsutras and kitchens. If women today, supporting Manusmriti think they would be excused, it is their misconception. 

Take a look back and we will understand the strategy…

“I really feel that most of us women in India are lucky because our scriptures have always given women a place of honor. Manusmriti also says that those who do not respect women, no matter how much worship they perform, it is in vain,” These are the words of the Delhi High Court Judge Pratibha Singh in August 2022! Before making this statement, she should have read a few more verses from the same scripture,

"He who abstains from intercourse with women during the six forbidden nights and eight more such nights remains celibate like a student, wherever he may be." That is, Manusmriti suggests that avoiding the company of women is a way of maintaining chastity.

"Chariots and horses, elephants, parasoles, wealth, women, cattle, all kinds of goods and precious metals belong to the conqueror." A woman is compared with cattle, salable goods, and other such things. That is, a woman is a marketable, tractable or 'usable commodity.' 

“An unattached man may be accepted as a witness, but many pious women not (cannot be accepted as witnesses). For women's perceptiveness is so watery (flowing or not stable), that even many sinful men do not have it.”

These are just three examples. Manusmriti is littered with numerous such verses. But Judge Pratibha Singh remembered this particular verse without noticing the context of such other verses.

Gujarat High Court Judge Sameer Dave, while hearing a case in June last year, tried to show a woman her 'place' by referring to Manusmriti telling her the importance of culture overlooking her suffering. A father, whose 16-17-year-old daughter became pregnant due to rape, filed an application in the court to get permission to have an abortion. At the time, Judge Dave gave the girl a 'valuable' piece of advice, "We are in the 21st century, so think of your mother or grandmother. In those days, girls used to get married at the age of 14-15 and give birth to children before they turned 17. Girls grow up before boys. 4-5 months before or after doesn't make a difference. You will not read, but read Manusmriti once to understand this.”

A woman filed a case of rape against a man, Govind Rai, alleging that he forced her to have sexual relations with him by promising marriage and then reneging on that promise. On this, Govind Rai told the court that he refused to marry the woman because he thought the woman was 'Manglik'. But the woman denied that she was ‘Manglik.’ Now, the court was left to ponder who exactly had deceived whom. The woman was just the victim of rape, but she had put Govind Rai on the brink of life and death by being ‘Manglik.’ Being ‘Manglik,’ the woman was a threat to Govind Rai’s life, the bench of Justice Brij Raj Singh of the Allahabad High Court concluded and ordered the Department of Astrology of Lucknow University to check the horoscope of the woman and inform the court within 21 days whether the woman was ‘Manglik’ or not. But as soon as the Supreme Court got this kind of buzz, the bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Pankaj Mittal intervened and immediately put the order on hold. Although this order was stayed by the Supreme Court's intervention, this low mentality of ‘highly educated’ people occupying one of the most responsible seats in the country shows that Manusmriti is not an obscure Puranic text.

Hearing a petition a day before his retirement in 2017, Rajasthan High Court judge Mahesh Chandra Sharma ‘hopefully’ said, "This government is expected to declare the cow as the national animal,"

Hearing a petition filed by Mohammad Abdul Khalid who was accused of cow slaughtering, the bench of Justice Shamim Ahmed said, "We hope that the central government will stop cow slaughtering and declare the cow as the national animal. Moreover, during the Vedic period, cows were worshiped and those who kill cows and those who allow such killing rot in hell,” the  judge uttered the 'ultimate truth.’

Mehrunnisa had filed a petition in the court to get monthly maintenance from father. Her father had remarried and he was no longer seeing her and her mother. While ruling on the petition, Judge of the Karnataka High Court quoted a verse from Manusmriti calling it 'great universal verse,' that, "pita rakshanti koumarye," meaning "a woman should be protected by her father in her childhood, by her husband in her youth and by her son in old age." While hearing a similar petition filed by a Hindu woman against her husband, the Chhattisgarh High Court also referred to Manusmriti and said, "If the husband has to go out of the village for work, he should make proper arrangements for the livelihood of his wife and then leave, even if he has to take a bad route for such arrangement." 

Just last month, during the hearing of a petition, the Delhi High Court had issued an instruction saying, "If a woman wants to use her maternal name, she has to take her husband's permission."

On August 15, 2022, while 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' was being celebrated, the eleven convicts of Bilkis Bano case were released from jail declaring them 'sanskari' and the remainder of their sentence was waived.

On 10 August 2018, members of 'Youth for Equality' and 'Anti-Reservation Party' burned a copy of the constitution while swearing against Babasaheb Ambedkar. Although these people were arrested on the complaint of the 'Akhil Bharatiya Bhim Sena', this incident can be seen as a sign that the values ​​of equality and brotherhood are no longer wanted.

Hinduism is becoming opportunistic, misusing different religious beliefs and Manusmriti. If we think that the examples given in this write-up are trivial, then we are living in the darkest of tunnels. The dust on Manusmriti is being shaken off. If we are still not able to sneeze because of  these dust particles, then we should understand that the chloroform of this 'Hindutva' is still tickling our nose and we are stuck in the middle of the maze. The new Parliament was inaugurated with great fanfare and performing Yagyas. Our President Draupadi Murmu was not invited because she is a tribal and also a woman. Sengol has already arrived in the new parliament. The day when Manusmriti will be instituted in Parliament is not far. Both the Constitution and Manuwad have reached the threshold of the court. Only the Constitution is being degraded and pushed out of the threshold and Manuvad is attempting to enter this threshold with grandiosity and reverence. The culture of supporters of Manusmriti is reborn!