Opinion | Why Rahul Gandhi’s Gen-Z Outreach Looks Like Disguised Hinduphobia

Gen Z should ask the Gandhi siblings a more fundamental question: Why is the standard of freedom, reform and respect different when the religion being discussed is Hinduism?

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Rahul Gandhi’s latest outreach to India’s Gen Z is being packaged as a campaign for women’s empowerment, youth rights and individual freedom. But beneath the fashionable vocabulary of liberation lies a far older political instinct: selectively presenting Hindu civilisation as the source of India’s social ills while applying an entirely different standard when it comes to other religious practices.

That is not progressive politics. It is selective secularism. And increasingly, it looks like a sophisticated form of Hinduphobia dressed up as social justice.

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At his recent “Chhatron Ki Goonj" programme in Pune, Rahul Gandhi attacked the Manusmriti and described its supposed prescription of women’s subordination to male relatives as shameful. There is nothing objectionable about debating ancient texts or criticising practices one considers regressive. Hindu civilisation itself has an extraordinarily rich tradition of such debate.

The problem begins when one selectively extracts from Hindu scripture to construct a caricature of an entire civilisation.

Consider the contrast. When Rahul Gandhi was asked about the hijab, his answer was unequivocal: what a woman wears is her decision and her responsibility; nobody else should decide what she wears.

Fair enough. Choice is indeed a legitimate........

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