I studied in RSS-run Vidya Bharati schools from nursery to Class 8. My father sat in the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (the highest decision-making body of the RSS). Our house had the Ram Charit Manas, the Geeta, all four Vedas, and shelves of RSS literature. The school library had more.
In all those years I never once heard the word Manusmriti.
Not because it was defended. Because it was irrelevant.
Rahul Gandhi grew up on comics (Not Chach Chaudhary but the one imported from the UK). I would be surprised if he had read the Bible, growing up. So when someone read him selective shlokas from a Manusmriti over a depressing weekend, he thought he had cracked open the secret operating manual of a billion Hindus. He found a nothing burger.
Mark this post. Count how many times he says "Manusmriti" during the 2029 campaign. My prediction: zero. By then he will have worked out that it matters to no one. But by then it will be too late. The Left will have burned another cycle on a low IQ leader who cannot tell an exposé from a nothing burger.
So let me put it to the only people who would actually know.
If you went to a Vidya Bharati school: did you ever read Manusmriti? Was it assigned, mentioned, or on any shelf?
And if not, then how old were you when you first heard the name, and who brought it up? In what context?
Answer honestly, even if it cuts against my argument. Let's help a low IQ opposition because whether you like him or not, a democracy needs robust opposition.