Editorial: A shoe thrown at the Republic
Perhaps that was the intent after all. The fact that he carried a chit bearing that slogan suggests premeditation. The incident seems to have been crafted to mainstream a fundamentalist variant of Hindutva that until now was limited to shady accounts on social media.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan Gavai (PTI)
CHENNAI: The man who threw a shoe at Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan Gavai in the Supreme Court on October 6 will soon be forgotten. No one remembers the men who threw footwear at George W Bush in 2008 and Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram in 2009. But the slogan this man, a little-known lawyer, shouted while being led away — Sanatan dharm ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan (India will not tolerate an insult to Sanatan dharma) — will likely become part of the national discourse in the months to come.
Perhaps that was the intent after all. The fact that he carried a chit bearing that slogan suggests premeditation. The incident seems to have been crafted to mainstream a fundamentalist variant of Hindutva that until now was limited to shady accounts on social media.
Not only was there premeditation, but there was also a preamble. Ever since Justice Gavai made, on Sept. 18, an off-the-cuff remark while hearing a petition to restore a broken Vishnu idol in the Khajuraho temple, Sanatanist extremists worked up a lather on social media over the ‘insult’ to a Hindu god.
Seemingly unrelated, a controversy was kicked up over the CJI’s mother Kamala Gavai, wife of the late Ambedkar associate RS Gavai and herself an activist, rejecting an invitation to grace the RSS centenary celebrations at Amravati on October 6.
The background made for a combustible cocktail: The CJI hails from a family that was prominent by the side of Dr Ambedkar when he initiated the Dalit movement to embrace Buddhism in 1955.
He is only the second Dalit to become Chief Justice of India. Kamala Gavai’s refusal to attend the RSS function was a rebuff to the Sangh Parivar’s effort to win the political support of Dalit sections. Against that context, the CJI’s throwaway remark to the Khajuraho petitioner — "Go and ask the deity himself to do something” — provided the perfect opportunity for Hindutva extremists to use injured innocence as a weapon and mainstream their agenda.
Other facts subsequent to the shoe-throwing incident suggest an involved choreography. The lawyer who threw a shoe at a judge in the open court is now being platformed by BJP-friendly news agencies and channels.
His defiant justification of his conduct provides Sanatanists an opportunity to gain an acknowledgement, if not currency, for their beliefs derived from the Manusmriti. A vicious campaign of casteist slurs is being carried out against the Chief Justice while the BJP-led government looks on as a spectator. And, in his inimitable fashion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi waited until his silence became deafening before telephoning CJI Gavai to express his condemnation of the act.
The imagery of this incident should be deeply troubling to everyone who believes in the Republic. No one can mistake the meaning of throwing footwear at the highest judge in the highest court of the land. Coming from an unabashed adherent of an ideology that believes in social apartheid, it is not just an affront to the judge but a challenge to the Constitution of which he is the custodian. Those in the government who choose to look the other way at this juncture must know that this weird variant of their own ideology will one day turn upon them too.