The attack on CJI Gavai and politics on caste thereafter

With the combined Dalit and lower-caste vote estimated to be more than 55% of the Bihar electorate, the BJP and its allies have their work cut out 

The controversy over the outrageous hurling of a shoe at Chief Justice BR Gavai, an Ambedkarite Dalit, inside the Supreme Court by a Hindu fanatic lawyer, could not have come at a more unfortunate time for the BJP. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi swiftly condemned the attack on the highest judicial authority, the incident has angered Dalit groups and given ammunition to the Opposition against the ruling party on the eve of the caste-polarised Bihar assembly elections. 

Known earlier as a Hindu upper-caste party in the state, the BJP has in recent years successfully made crucial inroads into the substantial Dalit and lower-caste vote in Bihar by allying with their leaders and parties. Not surprisingly, party leaders fear that any dent in this vote, because of an adverse propaganda campaign by the Opposition targeting the BJP and its Hindutva ideology in the aftermath of the shocking assault on a Dalit Chief Justice by a Hindu extremist lawyer, may mar its prospects in a closely fought election.

The Congress is already on the offensive. Bihar party president Rajesh Ram, a Dalit, broke down in tears as he addressed a press conference in the state capital, Patna. “This attack on the Supreme Court Chief Justice is an insult to millions of Dalits and the Constitution gifted to us by Babasaheb Ambedkar,” he lamented. The prominent Dalit leader of the state also alleged that the lawyer and his fanatic supporters in the social media, who sought to denigrate Chief Justice Gavai, shared the same ideology as the ruling party and allied organisations.

One of the chief reasons why the entire controversy flared up is because of the vicious social media campaign by self-styled protectors of Hinduism twisting out of context an aside by the Chief Justice while denying a recent petition asking the Supreme Court to help replace a damaged idol of the Hindu god Vishnu. To highlight that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter, he had asked the petitioner to pray to the deity to do something about it, which was completely misinterpreted by Hindu extremists as an insult to Hinduism, and a hate campaign was launched against the Chief Justice weeks before the shoe was thrown at him by the lawyer. Even the Modi government’s Attorney General, Tushar Mehta, pointed out that the shocking attack was a result of misinformation on social media. Despite the Prime Minister’s prompt denunciation of the assault on the Chief Justice and his own calm and dignified response, choosing not to press charges against his assailant, 71-year-old advocate Rakesh Kishore, who was released within a few hours of his crime, the controversy is yet to die down. While Kishore has continued to rant against the Dalit chief judicial authority in the country, a sustained hate campaign against him continues on social media by people and groups posing as champions of the Hindu faith, provoking the police in opposition-ruled Punjab to register FIRs relating to content involving attacks on the high constitutional authority, caste-based vilification, and incitement to disturb public law and order.

An unseemly row also appears to have broken out over social media in the past month between the family of Chief Justice Gavai and Hindu extremists after his mother, also an Ambedkarite Buddhist, declined an invite by the RSS to be chief guest at its centenary event in Amravati this month, after it sparked off controversy. Obviously distressed at the attack on her son, she described its target as the Constitution, while sister Kirti said it was “fuelled by a poisonous ideology”. To compound the BJP’s worries on the Dalit and lower-caste votes in Bihar, there has been further controversy on the party’s Delhi CM Rekha Gupta’s praise of Brahmins “igniting the flames of knowledge, and every government should look after their welfare” at an All India Brahmin Conference in Delhi. “They worship not only scriptures but also weapons. Only through weapons and scriptures can we protect society and the country today,” she added.

While it is natural that the BJP leader is likely to praise the Brahmins at a conference held by the community, it has come at a time when the lower orders of the Hindu caste system feel that they have been denied their rightful share of political clout, government positions, and educational entitlement by the upper castes, chiefly Brahmins. Over the past decade, the ruling party under Prime Minister Modi, a backward caste, had managed to reach out to Dalits and backward castes, resulting in remarkable electoral success, but as the BJP’s diminished performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls showed, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, they are impatient for more power and privileges. The comments made by the Delhi Chief Minister singling out the Brahmin community for such high praise stand the danger of being misconstrued in the aftermath of the attack on the Dalit Chief Justice and help the Opposition paint the BJP as a party biased in favour of the upper castes.

Strangely, unlike the Prime Minister, other senior BJP leaders have not gone out of their way to condemn the shameful episode at the Supreme Court. For instance, Yogi Adityanath, the iconic saffron-clad monk Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has maintained a discreet silence. So has the leadership of the ruling party’s ideological mentor, Rastriya Swayamsevak Samiti (RSS).  It is even more inexplicable that with just a few weeks left for the Bihar elections, leaders of regional Dalit parties like Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Jitendra Majhi of the Hindusthani Awami Morcha are yet to publicly condemn the attack on the Dalit Chief Justice. Both leaders are ministers in the Modi government’s central cabinet and should have rushed to defuse any disquiet and anger among their core voters at what happened inside the Supreme Court. With the combined Dalit and lower-caste vote estimated to be more than 55 per cent of the Bihar electorate, the BJP and its NDA allies have their work cut out to defeat an opposition that is clearly determined to use every propaganda advantage to win.