Congress to hold massive protests over FIR against Rahul Gandhi: KC Venugopal

The FIR was registered by the Haldwani police on Sunday, a day after Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference to seek a FIR over the ”purification ritual”

The Congress announced “massive protest marches” on Monday evening over a first information report (FIR) registered against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Uttarakhand, intensifying the political battle over some people “purifying” the Ramlila ground at Haldwani after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a public meeting there.

The FIR was registered by the Haldwani police on Sunday, a day after Gandhi addressed a press conference in New Delhi to demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi order an FIR against those involved in the “purification” of the Ramlila ground at Haldwani.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said the FIR against Rahul Gandhi was a “shameless weaponisation of the state machinery” to target the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Venugopal told the party’s state and district units to hold protest marches at the state and district headquarters on Monday evening to register their “vehement condemnation of this vendetta politics and to demand immediate legal action against the guilty BJP workers in Uttarakhand”.

The FIR, registered on a complaint by Amit Kumar, a member of Shri Ram Sena Dharmarth Seva Nyas, accused Gandhi of offences under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and sections 196 (promoting enmity between classes) and 299 (malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The FIR said Gandhi wrongly described the cleaning and havan ritual as an act of “untouchability” and an atrocity against the Scheduled Caste community without verifying the facts.

Venugopal said the party’s fight against those who attack the values of social justice enshrined in the Constitution should continue and asked all party leaders at the state and district levels to participate in the protests.

He said party units should ensure the maximum mobilisation and media dissemination “to send an unyielding message: the Indian National Congress will not be intimidated by state-sponsored witch-hunts and will fight relentlessly for social justice, constitutional equality, and the dignity of every citizen.”

“The BJP’s blatant defence of this casteist behaviour and its shameless weaponisation of the state machinery to target the Leader of the Opposition unequivocally proves that they are the biggest perpetrators or protectors of social injustice today. They have demonstrated that they will deploy the entire might of the state to suppress anyone who dares to speak out against caste-based discrimination and Dalit atrocities,” he said.

Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh also attacked the BJP over the FIR.

In a post on X, Surjewala said, ”By registering an FIR against Shri Rahul Gandhi, the cowardly BJP government has revealed its true face. The Leader of the Opposition in the country and Congress President, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge ji, has publicly stated both inside and outside Parliament how the incident of purifying the stage after his speech deeply hurt his sentiments. Meanwhile, from CM Dhami to the BJP National General Secretary, they are all dispensing wisdom on the justification of this incident.”

Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue of injustice, humiliation, and discrimination faced by Dalits in his press conference, and the BJP-RSS took less than 24 hours to prove him right.

“He highlighted the issue of untouchability and humiliation carried out in the name of “purification” after the rally of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge Ji in Uttarakhand, and demanded action against the BJP workers involved in it.

But this did not sit well with the BJP-RSS’s double-engine government in Uttarakhand. That’s why, even today, no action has been taken against the accused, but an FIR was filed against Rahul Gandhi Ji, who is demanding justice, the very next day,” said Jairam Ramesh.

Saubhadra Chatterji is Deputy Political Editor at the Hindustan Times. He writes on both politics and policies.