Attack on CJI Gavai is an attack on the edifice of India
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By Syed Ali Mujtaba, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: The attack on Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, a Dalit, by a Sanatanist fanatic is an attack on the edifice of India. Advocate Rakesh Kishore allegedly attempted to hurl a shoe towards the CJI, accusing him of insulting Hinduism. The 71-year-old lawyer claimed to be a Sanatanist who had a divine call not to tolerate a Dalit.
Justice BR Gavai was hearing a plea to reconstruct a seven-foot idol of Lord Vishnu at a temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. While dismissing the plea, he said: “This is purely publicity interest litigation… Go and ask the deity himself to do something.” “India is run by the constitution and not by religious beliefs,” he added.
In response, the Sanatanist showed his anger at the Chief Justice of India by hurling a shoe, calling him anti-Hindu. Advocate Rakesh Kishore defended his attack, saying he has no remorse as ‘God provoked him.’
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An eyewitness present in the courtroom said, Advocate Rakesh Kishore shouted at the CJI, “Sanatan Dharma ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan.” (“India will not tolerate disrespect towards Sanatan Dharma”).
In a firefighting exercise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Justice Gavai and said the attack on him had angered every Indian. He called the shoe attack on CJI “utterly condemnable.” “There is no place for such reprehensible acts in our society,” the PM said.
Not withstanding the facts, the October 6, 2025 incident against the CJI reminds the killing of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. Nathuram Godse too had said that Gandhi was anti-Santanists.’
Here, it needs to be mentioned that it was Mahatma Gandhi, who sat on a fast till death when the British government granted reservations to the Dalits. BR Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalit, had given the call that if his community was not given a reservation, he, along with his followers, would walk out of the Santan Dharma. It was Gandhi’s death threat that led to the Ponna Pact of 1932, where Dalits were given reservations to remain in the Hindu fold.
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Here, it also needs to be mentioned that Muslims, too, demanded a similar kind of reservation from the Congress and agreed to put up a joint protest against the British rule. However, Congress refused such a proposal. Mahatma Gandhi, who was at the helm of affairs of Congress, said, ‘The Muslim question can wait till complete independence (purn swaraj).’ This gave birth to the separatist politics among the Muslims and resulted in the Partition of India.
The attack on the CJI has again opened the Dalit question in India. To illustrate, let’s go back to the 5th century BC, when the first Sanskrit play ‘Mricchakatika’ or ‘The Little Clay Cart’ was written. Its author, Shudrak, offers a vivid portrayal of ancient Indian society, highlighting aspects of politics, justice, and social hierarchy in the Sanatan Dharma.
To say the least, India has not changed a bit from the days of ‘Mricchakatika.’ What was going on in the 5th century BC is now going on in 2025 AD as well. This was reflected in the action of a Sanatanist who attacked a Dalit, even if he is the Chief Justice of India.
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The Sanatanist versus Dalits issue is one side of the story, the other being the politics of Hindutva that the BJP has weaponized to mow down the specificities in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since 2014, has been building a new republic where Sanatanist supremacy can have a dominant say. In fact, he has made a policy of statecraft based on Post-Truth and Deep-Fake to shore up support for the BJP rule.
In this statecraft, ‘othering’ Muslims to the level of ostracizing them plays an important role. This is done to put a lid on the ‘can of worms’ that Sanatanist carries under their sleeves in the form of different castes. So, attacking Muslims is the best alibi to keep the tension among the Hindu fold at a minimum, and the rant of Islamophobia is to keep them united.
Now the wisdom of this statecraft is out in the open when a Sanatanist attacked a Dalit CJI. Advocate Rakesh Kishore has made a loud statement that Dalits cannot be tolerated under the Sanatanist paradigm.
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To quote an old proverb, ‘What you sow, you reap has come to haunt India today. Lal Krishan Advani and co, who sowed the seed of Hindu supremacy, is now giving fruits in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is nurturing this plant of hatred to grow under his watchful eyes, should not feel any remorse because the experiment he is testing in the social laboratory of India is starting to show results. The attack on the CJI is a response to his social experimentation.
The fissures are emerging from different parts of the country. In Karnataka, the Lingayat caste wants to break away from the Sanatan Dharma and wants a separate religious status for their caste. They are opposed scriptural authority of Vedas, puranas, superstition, astrology, Vedic priesthood, ritualistic practices, etc., that are central to the Santan Dharma.
The Sikh community wants to break free from the Hindu religious order, while technically, they are within the Sanatan fold. They believe in monotheism and oppose the concept of polytheism that is central to Sanatanists. Similarly, there may be other caste groups who also may be harboring such ambitions to break free from the clutches of Sanatan Dharma. Imagine if each caste demands the status of a separate religion, what will happen to India?
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The shoe attack on the CJI has indicated the social storm building in the country. This is because India, under the Modi rule, has deviated from the path of pluralism and secularism. What Narendra Modi considers to be his success could be a nightmare for the Indian republic. His politics of hate, instead of keeping India united, is cracking the edifice of the country.
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Curated by Humra Kidwai
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