Hindutva activists had carried out the “shuddhikaran” at the venue of a Congress rally at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on August 8, Kharge, a Dalit, had told the Rajya Sabha on August 14
Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge has written to House leader J.P. Nadda reminding him of his assurance of investigation and action on the “purification” ritual conducted at the spot where the Congress MP had delivered a speech last month.
Hindutva activists had carried out the “shuddhikaran” at the venue of a Congress rally at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on August 8, Kharge, a Dalit, had told the Rajya Sabha on August 14.
“In response to my intervention, you stood up in the House and said, ‘Sir, what Honorable Kharge ji has said is indeed a very sad matter. It is not only sad for the Congress Party, but it is sad for all of us…. Whatever has happened will definitely be investigated. I want to say that the Bharatiya Janata Party never supports such activity. I condemn it, and the National President will also look into it deeply. The hurt caused to your sentiments is a matter of regret for all of us’,” Kharge wrote to Nadda on Wednesday.
“But I am surprised that even after 24 days of this incident, not even a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against the organisations and individuals involved in this heinous act in Haldwani.
“The most objectionable aspect of this incident was that at the Ramlila Maidan site where I addressed the rally, purification was carried out in violation of the spirit of the Indian Constitution and human values.”
Kharge, the Congress president, underlined how things had remained unchanged nearly a century after B.R. Ambedkar’s 1927 satyagraha for granting Dalits access to a water tank in Mahad in present-day Maharashtra.
“Even when Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkarji drank the water from the tank during the Mahad agitation, people filled with casteist arrogance purified it by pouring 108 pots of cow urine and cow dung into it and chanting mantras,” he wrote.
“I want to be clear that this issue transcends my personal responsibility or that of the president of the Indian National Congress, and it concerns the broader sentiments of millions of people who face this brutal reality daily.
“It is essential to teach these wrongdoers a lesson. Therefore, this anger is not mine, but the expression of millions of such people; it is an issue of a mindset that directly affects a segment of society.”
Kharge concluded: “Therefore, I once again request you that in the light of these facts and the assurance given in the Rajya Sabha, you should direct the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand to ensure that a First Information Report is registered against the persons and organisations involved in this incident….”
His letter came days after Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi vowed to get Kharge justice and demanded an FIR be registered under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Instead, an FIR has been filed against Rahul — ironically, under the SC-ST Act — on the ground that he had insulted Dalits by falsely projecting the venue clean-up as a shuddhikaran against a member of the community.
Congress supporters on Tuesday burnt copies of the ancient Hindu code Manusmriti, which lays down caste norms, in front of the RSS office here. The Congress has protested in several cities and submitted complaints to multiple authorities in Uttarakhand.
Senior BJP leaders, including Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, have defended the shuddhikaran while giving it a communal angle, claiming it was a response to divisive slogans chanted at Kharge’s meeting by people from a particular community.
The controversy comes at a time when the BJP is trying to persuade anti-reservation activists to shun aggressive protests against caste-based affirmative action.
Courtesy : The Telegraph
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