In a significant assertion of independent Dalit voice, multiple Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe organisations have issued strongly worded open letters to the Congress leadership, accusing the party of practising selective social justice and reducing Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s legacy to a convenient political tool.
In open letters dated 15 October 2026 and addressed to the Congress leadership, the groups ask a pointed question is social justice a firm principle for the party, or a political tool it picks up when it suits. The letters were led by the SAIL SC & ST Employees Federation (New Delhi), the NBCC SC/ST Employees Welfare Association and the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Volleyball Club (Hyderabad), along with other Ambedkarite and social justice groups.
The letters point to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joining Ankita Bhandari’s parents at the India Gate protest, which they say turned the case into a national political spectacle. The signatories accept that protest, public scrutiny and institutional accountability are all legitimate. Their objection is to how constitutional values are invoked. “A party that routinely lectures the nation on constitutional morality must demonstrate consistency in its own political conduct,” the letters state.
Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old resort receptionist in Uttarakhand, was murdered in September 2022. Her killers were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025. The case has resurfaced amid fresh allegations of a possible VIP angle, and her family has demanded that BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam’s appointment as Governor of Sikkim be put on hold until a CBI probe is complete. The family has named him in connection with the allegations.
On Wednesday evening Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined Ankita’s parents at India Gate. The family was protesting against Gautam’s appointment and demanding that it be put on hold until the CBI concludes its probe into the alleged VIP angle. Dushyant Kumar Gautam has strongly denied them and has begun defamation proceedings. The allegations remain unproven.
The Dalit organisations have now called out this approach. They make it clear that their objection is not to democratic protest or the demand for institutional accountability. Their objection is to the selective use of constitutional morality and social justice only when it helps Congress attack its political opponents.
“Social justice cannot be selective. Constitutional morality cannot be convenient. And Babasaheb Ambedkar’s legacy cannot be reduced to a partisan instrument,” the letters state emphatically.
For decades, Ambedkarite movements have struggled for genuine equality before the law and substantive social justice. These organisations argue that such hard-won ideals must not be reduced to political vocabulary deployed according to electoral convenience. A party that constantly lectures the nation on constitutional values, they say, must first demonstrate consistency in its own conduct.
The timing and language of these open letters are telling. At a moment when Congress sought to project itself as the sole champion of justice for a young woman’s family, independent Dalit voices have refused to allow their community’s aspirations and Ambedkar’s legacy to be appropriated for partisan gains.
India’s social justice discourse, the organisations insist, deserves better than selective outrage dictated by political expediency. The letters stand as a reminder that true commitment to equality cannot be switched on and off to suit political needs — a principle that appears to have been ignored in the Congress’s handling of the Ankita Bhandari case. They urge the Congress to reflect on the perception that its commitment to social justice is most visible when it is used against opponents. India, they say, deserves politics built on consistent principles, institutional responsibility and genuine equality, not selective outrage driven by expediency.
Multiple Dalit and SC/ST organisations have issued nearly identical open letters dated 15 October 2026 addressed to the leadership of the Indian National Congress. The main organisations include:
Signed by dozens of Dalit intellectuals, academics, jurists and organisational representatives, the letters mark a notable assertion by sections of the Ambedkarite community that constitutional values must stand above partisan convenience.
