Mounting a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over the alleged shuddhikaran (purification) ceremony at the venue of a rally addressed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Haldwani earlier in August, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday (August 29, 2026), said the act amounted to the practice of untouchability, which is a crime under the Constitution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi must ensure that a First Information Report (FIR) is registered against those responsible, Mr. Gandhi said, accusing the BJP-RSS of seeking to prevent Dalits from progressing and living with dignity and respect.
“We are demanding justice for the Congress president. Give the Congress president justice in Uttarakhand. It is the duty of the Central and State governments to ensure that Kharge ji gets justice,” Mr. Gandhi said at a press conference here.
He declined to take questions on the controversy surrounding Penguin Random House India and the publication of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging, calling it a “digression strategy”.
Penguin India reportedly dropped plans to publish the memoir after Ms. Gandhi refused to remove passages critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS, and China’s alleged occupation of Indian territory.
“I don’t have any interest in this right now; I am interested in what they have done to Kharge ji,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Nearly 20 days had passed since the alleged incident, but no action had been taken, he said. Referring to Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt’s reported defence of the ceremony, Mr. Gandhi said the State BJP leadership had effectively justified an act of untouchability.
“We demand that an FIR be lodged against those who have done this. PM Modi states that he belongs to every caste and is the Prime Minister of the country, but his party chief of Uttarakhand defends shuddhikaran,” he said.
Opening his presentation with images of the Constitution and the Manusmriti, Mr. Gandhi framed the controversy as part of a larger ideological conflict between the constitutional values associated with B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and the ideology represented by the BJP-RSS.
His invocation of the Constitution and the Manusmriti came amid the BJP’s recent attempt to portray him as “anti-Hindu”, accusing him of selectively attacking Hindu religious texts while remaining silent on religious texts of other faiths during the Congress’s recent ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ (echo of students) programme in Pune.
Caste discrimination and untouchability continued to be a reality despite being prohibited by the Constitution, Mr. Gandhi said, citing instances of Dalit children allegedly being made to clean toilets in schools, discriminatory practices in public spaces, and violence against Dalit grooms.
“The more successful the Dalit person is, the more fierce the attack on him or her is,” he said, referring to similar alleged instances involving Mr. Kharge, Rajasthan Congress leader Tikaram Jully, and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
“This is another name for untouchability. The BJP people practise untouchability. When they do shuddhikaran, they say that Dalits cannot touch, as they are impure,” Mr. Gandhi said.
The alleged ceremony was performed at Haldwani’s Ramlila Maidan on August 10, 2026, two days after Mr. Kharge addressed a Congress gathering there. Mr. Kharge subsequently raised the issue in Parliament, demanding action under laws dealing with untouchability.
Mr. Bhatt had reportedly maintained that the venue had been polluted by slogans inappropriate for a religious place, prompting the Congress to accuse him of justifying the ritual. The Uttarakhand Congress unit has alleged that the Shri Ram Sena performed the ceremony and had links with the BJP, a charge denied by the ruling party.
Mr. Kharge had also raised the issue at the recent Congress Working Committee meeting and expressed anguish over what he said was inadequate support from certain quarters within the party.
Clarifying Mr. Kharge’s remarks, Mr. Gandhi rejected the suggestion that the Congress president had complained of receiving little support from the party as a whole.
“That’s not actually what happened. He said certain people didn’t support him. He didn’t in any way say that the vast majority of Congress did not support him. I supported him, and a whole number of other people supported him,” Mr. Gandhi said.
In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House and Union Minister J.P. Nadda had said the BJP did not subscribe to such activities and that the incident would be investigated.
Published – August 29, 2026 01:11 pm IST
