BJP Rejects Caste Claims in Uttarakhand Ritual Dispute

Trivedi addressed the media on Saturday, asserting that video evidence of the event contains no caste-based intent. He claimed the Congress party has exhausted its creative political repertoire, resorting to divisive rhetoric concerning language, region, and social hierarchy to incite conflict within Hindu society. According to Trivedi, the opposition’s primary objective remains the fragmentation of the community to serve an ideological agenda he linked to historical influences.

To counter Gandhi’s criticism of the BJP regarding social justice, Trivedi pivoted to the Congress party's own track record. He detailed several historical incidents in Rajasthan and Karnataka, including the 2020 attack on Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, claiming the party failed to protect its own Dalit members. Trivedi contrasted these allegations with BJP-led initiatives, such as the involvement of Kameshwar Chaupal in the 1989 Ram temple foundation ceremony and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public gestures toward the Valmiki community in Varanasi. BJP spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan joined the briefing, characterizing the Congress leadership’s approach to Dalit issues as purely opportunistic. The confrontation remains centered on Gandhi's insistence that the 'shuddhikaran' ritual constitutes a criminal violation of the SC/ST Act, a claim the BJP continues to categorize as politically motivated fabrication.