New Delhi/Haldwani: A day after Uttarakhand Police registered a First Information Report against Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on a “shuddhikaran” ritual at the venue of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s Haldwani rally, All India Congress Committee general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal has directed every Pradesh and District Congress Committee to hold protest marches at state and district headquarters this evening. The letter, dated August 31, calls the FIR “malicious” and demands a case against those who conducted the ritual.

The controversy began at Ramlila Ground in Haldwani. On August 8, Kharge addressed the Congress “Vijay Shankhnaad” rally there. Days later, members of Shri Ram Sena Dharmarth Seva Nyas held what they described as a cleanliness drive and shuddhikaran havan at the same ground. Congress leaders, including Kharge in the Rajya Sabha, called it an insult rooted in caste: a “purification” of a public stage after a Dalit leader had spoken. The organisers and BJP leaders said the ground had been left littered, that slogans unfit for a site with a Ram temple had been raised, and that the ritual had no link to Kharge’s caste. Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt later said the place had been “polluted” and then purified; Union minister J.P. Nadda had earlier called the episode regrettable and said it would be looked into. No FIR was registered against the organisers.

On August 29, Gandhi held a press conference in New Delhi, called the ritual another name for untouchability, said it was a crime under the Constitution and the SC/ST Act, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an FIR against those responsible. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra backed the demand.

On the night of August 30, Haldwani City Kotwali registered FIR No. 0297/2026 against Gandhi. The complainant is Amit Kumar, 26, of Jawahar Nagar Colony, who identified himself as a member of the Valmiki community and an office-bearer of the same Shri Ram Sena trust that conducted the ritual. He alleged that Gandhi, without verification, gave the event a casteist colour, hurt the sentiments of Scheduled Caste participants, and sought action against people who, he said, included SC community members and who were only cleaning a religious-cultural ground. Police have invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions on promoting enmity between groups and on deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings, along with sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Investigation has been assigned to a Deputy Superintendent of Police. City SP Manoj Kumar Katyal confirmed the case.

Venugopal’s letter frames the FIR as vendetta: instead of acting on Gandhi’s complaint against “casteist” conduct, the state police, it says, targeted the Leader of the Opposition. It instructs PCCs to march at state headquarters and DCCs at district headquarters this evening, with mandatory participation of office-bearers, CLP leaders, MLAs, MLCs, MPs, frontal organisations and workers, plus “maximum mobilisation and media dissemination.” The AICC Connect Centre and Central Control Room will track compliance. The stated demand is an FIR against those who performed the ritual in Uttarakhand and a public rejection of what the party calls state-sponsored intimidation of anyone who speaks on caste discrimination.

BJP leaders and the complainant maintain the ritual was not anti-Dalit and that Gandhi’s press conference itself insulted SC participants and a religious practice. Congress says the sequence, ritual after a Dalit president’s rally, defence by the state unit, then an FIR against the LoP who asked for action, shows who is protected and who is prosecuted. Marches are scheduled across state and district headquarters this evening.