Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar Sunday questioned the ‘silence’ of Congress workers over the ‘purification’ ceremony conducted in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani following Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s rally.

His reaction came a day after Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi said the purification ceremony amounted to the practice of untouchability.

The VBA chief, in a video message, lamented that the Congress took time to react against the ‘casteist’ act. “Khargeji had to express his sorrow over the lack of explicit condemnation of this casteist act by members of his own Congress party. Yesterday (Saturday), after 15 days, Rahul Gandhi held a press conference on this issue and gave a presentation exposing those who performed the ‘purification’.”

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Targeting Congress workers for their initial ‘silence’ on the issue, Ambedkar said, “Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of Opposition, and his workers are preparing to make him the next prime minister. That is wonderful, but how are the party leaders who remain silent on the casteism faced by their own party president any better than the BJP Manuvadis?”

He said showing photos in a presentation will achieve nothing. “Everyone knows that this casteism against Khargeji was perpetrated by the RSS-BJP; there are no two ways about it,” Ambedkar added.

The VBA chief then asked if Rahul Gandhi himself has filed any FIR to help Kharge get justice. “If Rahul Gandhi won’t fight for your own party president, what will the poor, Dalit, and marginalised communities make of it? There is a saying in English – ‘walk the talk’. It means doing what you say and backing up your words with action.”