Advocate Rakesh Kishore hurled his shoe at the Chief Justice of India, Mr Gavai. The background was that while delivering his verdict on a PIL filed by the advocate seeking the restoration of the Vishnu idol's head in one of the temples in Khajuraho, Justice Gavai stated that this matter was not a PIL but a personal publicity move. The petitioner should have approached the Archaeological Society of India or should have asked the deity to restore its head.

This comment infuriated Rakesh Kishore. According to him, the lord appeared in his dream and asked him to take action. For him, this was a motivation to throw his shoe at the CJI, who happens to be the second Dalit and first Buddhist to occupy the country's highest legal office. The attack of this sort is also very reflective of the plight of Dalits in the current dispensation.

At the same time, Justice Gavai's mother was invited as the chief guest in a city in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. She declined the invitation, saying that she is an Ambedkarite and will not be able to attend this program. One recalls here that RSS's agenda of Hindu Rashtra is unfolding at a rapid pace, and only ideologically blinded people may not be able to discern this. The likes of Justice Gavai's mother must be remembering Babasaheb opposing the demand of Pakistan on the ground that this may pave the way for Hindu Raj, which will be a calamity for the country. (Ambedkar, "Pakistan or Partition of India," revised ed.)

At the same time, a so-called influencer, Ajeet Bharti, also wrote something derogatory against the CJI on social media. When confronted with the fact that action might be taken against him, he said, "The government is ours; the system is ours," Bharti posted in Hindi late in the evening of October 7. Just before that, he wrote another X post: "If the entire system were against me, I wouldn't be out and about, having coffee, roasted almonds, and cashews. The entire system is with me, that is, your system — the system of our ideas. Disagreements will continue to happen, but we are all one, having been, and will remain. I am grateful to all of you. Jai Sri Ram!"

Justice Gavai instructed the Court officials to disregard the incident and proceed with further work, avoiding it as a point of distraction. With a magnanimous heart, he asked that no action should be taken against Kishore. Police action was to call him to the police station, and after a chat, they returned his shoe. Now, FIRs are being filed against Kishore at various locations. As for Bharti, he was also called to the police station, treated to a warm cup of tea, and allowed to leave.

Imagine such an atrocious act of throwing a shoe at the CJI was done by someone with a Muslim name! By now, all the NSA and other such clauses would have been put against him. As far as CJI's comments on appealing to the deity, a lot of ruckus has been created on social media, as an insult to Sanatan. Even Rakesh shouted, "sanatan ka apmaan nahin sahega Hindustan," (the insult of sanatan will not be tolerated by India)!

Incidentally, the slogan began with "garv se kaho hum Hindu hain" (say with pride, we are Hindus), but now, instead of the word "Hindu," the word sanatan is used as the flag bearer of RW politics. One of the main reasons for the formation of RSS, the primary vehicle of Hindutva nationalism and Hindu Rashtra, was to confront the rising awareness amongst Dalits about their exploitation by the landlord-clergy alliance. So, RSS always upheld the caste-varna as its anchor, with the values of the Manu Smriti being articulated by its earlier ideologues.

Today, its articulation has become cleverer, where on one hand they say that all castes are equal and, as far as policies are concerned, they ensure that atrocities on Dalits and their social marginalisation are implemented consistently. This marginalisation and intimidation of Dalits has intensified after 2014, when the BJP came to full majority on its own.

The rise in anti-Dalit crimes is not for the first time, but ever since the BJP-led NDA government came to power in 2014, their incidence has climbed significantly. [Crimes against Dalits and Adivasis have increased by 27.3% and 20.3%, respectively, in 2018.]

As per data provided by scholar Anand Teltumbde, "The assault on Gavai thus mirrors the broader social pattern where caste violence persists amid formal equality. Over 55,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits are registered each year; on average, four Dalits are murdered and a dozen Dalit women are raped every day." This incident was not taken seriously by the state; we have seen the attitude of the police. Mr Modi woke up to the negative electoral impact of this on Dalit voters, and the most he did was to issue a bland tweet.

The affirmative action of our Constitution has enabled marginalised people like Gavai to rise to such heights in the Indian judicial system. On the other hand, the social attitudes towards Dalits and women have not changed in tune with the democratic norms. The yeoman efforts of Dr Ambedkar were backed by Gandhi's marathon struggles to fight against the prevalent untouchability in society. Social norms began to change to some extent. But the roots of those prejudices and biases against Dalits were not rooted out completely.

Ambedkar and Gandhi emphasised inter-caste marriages to root out the rigidities and atrocities wrought by the caste system. The last three to four decades have seen the rise not only in the widening gulf between religions, but also, parallel to this, the caste system is also getting a boost due to the rising sectarianism. One sectarianism strengthens the other one. That is at the core of what the likes of Rakesh Kishore are manifesting, and the likes of Ajeet Bharti tell us that, due to the right-wing party being in power, these elements receive assurance about going scot-free. They enjoy nearly absolute immunity.