Are legal guarantees insufficient in abolishing untouchability? | In Focus Podcast

In August this year, the performance of a “purification” ritual by certain Hindu groups in Uttarakhand, at the location where Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, who belongs to a Dalit community, addressed a public rally, led to a national conversation on the practice of untouchability. This discourse was shaped as Opposition Congress leaders accused the ruling BJP dispensation of practicing caste discrimination and the Uttarakhand BJP chief defended the ritual saying it was meant to “cleanse” the area of the ideas that Mr. Kharge was espousing at the rally. After a sustained campaign from opposition leaders and civil society actors, an FIR was registered in the matter as well.Are legal guarantees insufficient in abolishing untouchability? Noted scholar and political theorist Valerian Rodrigues and Supreme Court Advocate Disha Wadekar join us in this episode to discuss the question.Host: Abhinay LakshmanProducer: Jude WestonFor more episodes of In Focus: Published - October 08, 2026 07:29 pm IST