Rahul Gandhi Calls Haldwani 'Shuddhikaran' Ritual Untouchability, Seeks FIR Against Organisers

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday described the ‘shuddhikaran’ (purification) ritual performed at a venue where Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had addressed a rally in Haldwani earlier this month as an act of “untouchability”, alleging that it violated the Constitution. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure registration of an FIR against those responsible.

Addressing a press conference, Gandhi alleged that the BJP and RSS were attempting to prevent Dalits from progressing and living with dignity and accused their workers of being behind the purification ceremony.

“We are demanding justice for the Congress president. It is the duty of the Central and State governments to ensure that Kharge ji gets justice,” he said.

Gandhi said 20 days had passed since the ceremony was held at Ramlila Maidan in Haldwani on August 10, but no action had been taken.

He also pointed to Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt’s defence of the ceremony.

“This is another name for untouchability. When they do shuddhikaran, they say that Dalits cannot touch, as they are impure,” Gandhi said.

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Demand for FIR and action

He demanded that an FIR be registered against those who conducted the ceremony and sought the Prime Minister’s intervention.

“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,” Gandhi said.

Bhatt has defended the exercise, saying it was not directed against any individual but was conducted because the venue had allegedly been polluted by slogans considered inappropriate for a religious place.

The Uttarakhand Congress, meanwhile, accused the Shri Ram Sena of conducting the purification ceremony and alleged that the organisation had links with the BJP. The BJP has denied the allegation.

The BJP had also rejected the issue in Parliament, with its Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha J.P. Nadda saying that the party did not subscribe to such activities and that the incident would be investigated.

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Gandhi frames wider ideological conflict

Gandhi began his presentation by displaying images of the Constitution and the Manusmriti and sought to frame the Haldwani controversy within what he described as a wider ideological conflict between constitutional values associated with B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and the ideology represented by the BJP-RSS.

He argued that caste discrimination and untouchability continued to persist despite constitutional safeguards.

He cited alleged instances of Dalit children being made to clean toilets in schools, discriminatory practices in public spaces and attacks on Dalit grooms to underline his argument.

“The more successful the Dalit person is, the more fierce the attack on him or her is,” he said, referring to alleged instances involving Kharge, Rajasthan Congress leader Tikaram Jully and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Reference to Manusmriti controversy

Gandhi also referred to the Manusmriti amid a recent BJP campaign accusing him of targeting Hindu religious texts while remaining silent on the religious texts of other faiths during the Congress’s ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme in Pune.

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