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Congress units across several states held demonstrations on Monday over the Uttarakhand Police’s first information report (FIR) against Leader of the Opposition and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, escalating teh political battle over a controversial purification ceremony held in Haldwani after a public rally addressed by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who comes from the Dalit community.

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Calling the FIR a “shameless weaponisation of the state machinery to target the Leader of the Opposition”, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal directed the party’s state and district units to hold massive protest marches on Monday evening to condemn what he described as “vendetta politics” and demand immediate legal action against the BJP workers allegedly involved in the incident.

The protests were held in Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar and Goa.

“Our fight should continue against the ones who attack the values of social justice enshrined in the Constitution,” Venugopal said in his letter to state units, calling for maximum mobilisation and media outreach. He urged participation by PCC and DCC office-bearers, CLP leaders, MLAs, MLCs, MPs, senior leaders, frontal organisations, departments, cells and grassroots workers.

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Venugopal accused the BJP of “blatant defence of this casteist behaviour” and “shameless weaponisation of the state machinery to target the Leader of the Opposition”. He alleged that the BJP had shown it was willing to deploy the “entire might of the state” against those who spoke out against caste discrimination and atrocities against Dalits.

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Ramesh said Gandhi had raised the issue of “injustice, humiliation, and discrimination” faced by Dalits and alleged that the BJP-RSS had “taken less than 24 hours to prove him right”. He said that while no action had been taken against those allegedly involved in the purification ceremony, an FIR had been filed against Gandhi for demanding action.

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