Trial balloon: Congress reacts to Manusmriti proposal rejection

The Congress on Friday, 12 July claimed that the proposal to introduce Manusmriti for the LLB students in the Delhi University, that has been rejected, was a "trial balloon".

Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Friday said the proposal to introduce Manusmriti for the LLB students was rejected as it was not found appropriate and added there are other texts which can be used for teaching the Indian culture.

In an interview with PTI, Singh said that he exercised his emergency powers to scrap the proposal during a pre-screening of the agenda for the Academic Council meeting on Friday.

Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Standard Operating Procedure of RSS/BJP. Get Delhi University Law Centre to propose that the Manusmriti should be taught. Inevitably fierce objections rise. The Vice Chancellor of DU rejects the proposal. The Education Minister supports him."

"Objective fulfilled of bad guy/good guy routine. This drama fools nobody. The non-biological PM and Education Minister have floated a trial balloon. Make no mistake. This is only the beginning," Ramesh said on X.

The vice-chancellor (VC) held back the proposal to introduce Manusmriti for the LLB students on Thursday, 11 July and clarified that no such text would be taught by the university after a section of teachers objected to it.

The proposed changes in the syllabus of the jurisprudence paper pertained to semesters one and six of LLB.

According to the revisions, two readings on Manusmriti -- 'Manusmriti with the Manubhasya of Medhatithi' by G N Jha and 'Commentary of Manu Smriti - Smritichandrika' by T Kristnasawmi Iyer -- were proposed to be introduced for the students.

A committee headed by Singh decided that the proposal made by the Faculty of Law was not appropriate to be introduced for deliberations and rejected it before it could be tabled before the Academic Council, the highest decision-making body of the DU.