Deutsche Tageszeitung - BJP Rejects Caste Allegation Over Haldwani Venue Ritual

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday rejected an allegation of caste discrimination connected to a ceremony at a rally venue in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, and accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of using the matter to create political divisions.

Gandhi had criticized the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over reports that a purification ceremony was performed at the Ramlila ground after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a gathering there. Gandhi sought registration of a First Information Report.

At a joint press conference, BJP representatives Guru Prakash Paswan and Sudhanshu Trivedi presented video statements from two Scheduled Caste eyewitnesses. The witnesses belonged to an organization that cleaned the stage and organized a havan at the Ramlila site, and they denied that caste discrimination had occurred.

The BJP leaders argued that the roughly 20-day delay before the allegation and demand for an FIR showed that the matter lacked a genuine legal basis. They accused Congress of treating the episode as a political opportunity.

Trivedi said the eyewitness accounts could potentially justify a counter-complaint, though he did not say against whom such a case would be filed.

Paswan accused Gandhi of supporting forces that divide society and building a narrative on false claims. He described Gandhi and Congress as anti-Dalit and neo-feudal.

The BJP spokesperson alleged that Congress had mistreated Kharge, former Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and senior Haryana leader Kumari Selja. He also referred to the treatment of B.R. Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram within Congress history.

Paswan noted that Jagjivan Ram left Congress and later became India’s first Deputy Prime Minister from the Dalit community in a government formed with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

He alleged that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara had publicly said he was denied the chief minister’s post because he is Dalit. Paswan challenged Congress to state how many Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes chief ministers it currently had in the States it governs.

He listed President Droupadi Murmu, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and several chief ministers and deputy chief ministers from Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities as examples of leaders who reached prominent positions under BJP-led governments.

Paswan also asked who had worked to defeat Ambedkar electorally and cited the experiences of Kanshi Ram and Sitaram Kesri while repeating his accusation that Congress had a record of casteism.

Trivedi said Congress repeatedly foregrounded identities involving gender, region, State, language and caste. He alleged that its underlying aim was to create conflict among Hindus.

The BJP leader also cited violence against Dalits in Congress-governed Rajasthan and Karnataka to claim that the party had failed to protect Scheduled Caste communities.

The dispute centers on sharply different accounts of the Haldwani ceremony: Gandhi characterized it as untouchability requiring police action, while the BJP said the people who organized and witnessed the ritual denied any caste element.

(N.Loginovsky--DTZ)