Shimla, Aug. 14 -- The Shimla urban and rural units of the Congress in Himachal Pradesh on Friday staged a silent protest at the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Ridge here over allegations that a section of BJP supporters and Hindu organisations performed a ritual involving sprinkling Gangajal and a havan in Haldwani after a rally addressed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Congress leaders alleged that the reported act amounted to an insult to Dalits and reflected caste-based discrimination, as Kharge is a prominent Dalit leader. They claimed that the ritual was carried out on the premise that the venue had to be "purified" after Dalit participants attended the Congress programme.

The BJP and the organisations allegedly involved h...