Rahul urges Modi to order FIR into Kharge event 'purification'
New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an FIR against those involved in the "shuddikaran" or purification of the Ramlila ground at Haldwani after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a public meeting. Calling it the fight between two ideologies - the Constitution versus the RSS-BJP's views - Gandhi emphasised that Kharge must get justice.
"Our demand is an FIR should be lodged at the earliest against those who performed Shuddikaran. The Prime Minister said he belongs to all castes. His party chief in Uttarakhand claimed Shuddikaran was the right thing to do. We want the PM to give order to file an FIR under the SC/ST act. This shows the BJP and RSS' mindset. They don't want a Dalit to become prosperous and live respectfully...," Gandhi said at a presser in New Delhi on Saturday.
Playing a video that showed the BJP's Uttarakhand chief Mahendra Bhatt supporting "shuddikaran", Gandhi said, "It is a reflection of PM's ideology... BJP's Uttarakhand chief has committed an illegal act by justifying the act. But the PM is silent."
Squarely blaming the BJP and RSS for the purification ceremony at Haldwani, Gandhi said, "This is done by the BJP and RSS and this is a crime according to the Constitution. Shuddikaran is another name for untouchability. Which is illegal but BJP practises it."
Responding to Gandhi's allegations, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "No BJP worker was among those people who carried out the purification, but does anyone in Uttarakhand know what Mallikarjun Kharge's caste is?... I think the Congress party has become issue-less..."
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused the Congress of doublespeak and using Dalits for its political gains, stating that the party's record of treating leaders from the Scheduled Castes bears testimony to that.
Addressing the media, lawmaker Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Congress party cannot claim to stand for the marginalised as there are various examples of how the party only raised issues pertaining to the Dalits to suit its politics.
He read out a list of atrocities against Dalits during Congress rule. "What happened in the 1995 Lucknow Guest House Case. UP's first woman Dalit chief minister Mayawati had blamed the Samajwadi Party of plotting against her. It was the BJP that went to save her," he said, referring to the mob attack on a guest house where Mayawati was staying in after she withdrew support from the then Mulayam Singh Yadav-led SP-BSP government. Trivedi also alleged the Congress supported Article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, where the laws did not allow SC and STs to take up jobs, forcing them to take up menial work.
Accusing the Congress of mistreating its own Dalit leaders, BJP spokesperson Guru Prakash said when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra went to file her nominations from Wayanad, she was accompanied by her family while Kharge was left standing outside the door....
To read the full article or to get the complete feed from this publication, please
Contact Us.