Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday launched a sharp attack on Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his recent remarks on the Manusmriti, invoking urban Naxals and accusing the Congress leader of insulting India, its institutions and heritage and attempting to mislead the younger generation.
Addressing a programme in Raebareli, Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency, the chief minister said he had recently come across a statement by the Congress leader in Maharashtra, where Rahul Gandhi had reportedly urged women to break free from the “shackles of Manusmriti”.
“As the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, you are accountable to democracy. You have taken an oath on the Constitution. But you consider abusing India’s heritage your birthright,” Yogi said. “You insult Uttar Pradesh when you travel outside the state and insult India when you go abroad. You seek proof from the soldiers of the Indian Army.”
The chief minister further accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress of indirectly encouraging elements opposed to the country in India’s fight against terrorism. “Your party questioned the existence of Lord Ram. Your commitment to democracy can be understood from the Emergency,” Yogi said.
Taking on Rahul Gandhi over his comments on Manusmriti, Yogi said, “If you want to understand Manu, read the Atharvaveda and the Matsya Purana. I want to ask whose life has not, in some form, been protected, nurtured or shaped by a woman as a mother, sister, wife or daughter?”
यह काल गणना मनु ने दी है…
राहुल जी, यह आपके नाना ने नहीं दी है, परनाना ने नहीं दी है, आपकी दादी ने नहीं दी है… pic.twitter.com/0YXJ4fP3gb
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) August 24, 2026
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What Rahul said
Speaking at the ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Pune on Saturday, Gandhi said that women belong to themselves and not to their fathers, husbands or sons. He termed as shameful the Manusmriti’s assertion that a woman should remain under the authority of male relatives at every stage of her life.
“I would like to quote the Manusmriti here, which clearly says that in childhood, a female must be subject to her father, in youth, she belongs to her husband and when her husband is dead, she belongs to her sons. A woman must never be independent. These words are shameful. These words should never have been spoken,” Gandhi said.
Referring to Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar, Chief Minister Adityanath further said a young woman had used objectionable language against the Prime Minister and later apologised for it, with her parents also acknowledging that she had made a mistake. “Why do you want to ruin India’s present generation at the hands of urban Naxals? Why do you want to play with India’s future?” Yogi asked.
The chief minister also targeted the Gandhi family, saying that while Raebareli had continued to support them, the family had created an ‘identity crisis’ for the region. “When you insult India’s institutions and make derogatory remarks against the Prime Minister, you are insulting an institution of India. The prime minister is not merely an individual, the office represents an institution of the country,” he said.
“If these institutions are put in the dock, every citizen of India will eventually be put in the dock. When you use abusive language against the prime minister, you insult India and create an identity crisis for the present generation,” Yogi added, urging Rahul Gandhi to refrain from such “irresponsible conduct”.
Yogi targets Congress’s UP leadership
The chief minister did not stop at Rahul Gandhi, taking a swipe at the Congress’s Uttar Pradesh leadership. “This is their history, the history of the Congress’s state president. When a mafia don (referring to Mukhtar Ansari) murdered his brother, this person did not testify against the criminal. Instead, he went down on his knees before him,” Yogi said, in apparent reference to the 1991 murder of Awadesh Rai, brother of Congress state president Ajay Rai.
“He bowed before the very man who had brutally killed his brother. The situation changed only when the government intervened and crushed that mafia element. Otherwise, these people had turned the state into a mafia-dominated region, creating an identity crisis,” he added.
Yogi Adityanath was in Raebareli on Monday to inaugurate an auditorium built at a cost of Rs 50 crore on the birth anniversary of Rana Beni Singh Madhav.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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