Shoe hurled at CJI Gavai during SC proceedings: How protest for Sanatan Dharma became a ‘casteist attack’ in the Left’s imagination

When a 71-year-old lawyer flung his shoe towards Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai in open court, shouting “Sanatan ka apmaan nahi sahenge!”, it was an act of raw outrage. Rash, highly condemnable, but unmistakably rooted in faith. Within minutes, however, India’s liberal echo chamber decided to read something entirely different: caste.

The shoe, they said, wasn’t hurled in defence of Sanatan Dharma; it was an attack on a “Dalit Chief Justice.”

This is the perverse alchemy of India’s left-liberal intelligentsia, where every almost everything must be twisted into a social fault line, every protest of faith turned into a caste war. One of the seniormost Opposition leaders, Rahul Gandhi, has long championed himself as a caste crusader, positioning himself as the self-appointed messiah of Dalits, OBCs, and tribals, all while reducing their identity to mere electoral arithmetic. From his choreographed temple visits to his recent calls for a nationwide caste census, Rahul’s politics has been less about empowerment and more about engineering divisions. Similarly, other regional parties too, have leveraged caste to sow divisions and further their politics.

But the facts in this case are clear. The lawyer didn’t invoke caste. He didn’t utter a slur. His only words were, “We will not tolerate the insult of Sanatan Dharma.” The outrage stemmed from what many perceived as CJI Gavai’s sarcastic remark during a plea about the restoration of a mutilated Lord Vishnu idol at Khajuraho: “Go and ask the deity itself to do something now. You say you’re a staunch devotee, so go and pray.”

To a devout Hindu, such words, even if unintended, sound dismissive of faith, especially when they come from the head of the judiciary. The lawyer’s reaction, while disproportionate and unacceptable, was emotional, not casteist.

Yet, within hours, the caste machinery was activated. “Casteist attack on Dalit CJI,” screamed social media activists and ‘secular’ journalists who seem allergic to any expression of Hindu faith that doesn’t fit their pre-approved templates.

The politics behind the caste spin

The reason for this spin is simple: faith unites Hindus; caste divides them.

Since 2014, when Narendra Modi’s rise disrupted decades of vote-bank arithmetic, the Opposition and its ecosystem have been trying to fracture Hindu unity by resurrecting caste divisions. Every election cycle brings the same playbook: fake narratives about reservation rollback, “Brahminical Hindutva,” and now, the “Dalit CJI under attack” trope.

Remember the doctored video of Amit Shah circulated before the 2024 elections, falsely suggesting the BJP wanted to end caste-based reservation? The same ecosystem is now at work again, exploiting an act of protest to gaslight Dalit voters and drive a wedge within Hindu society.

Because for them, a united Hindu identity rooted in Sanatan Dharma is politically fatal. 

When Islamists take to the streets chanting “Sar Tan Se Juda” over perceived “blasphemy,” neither the Left ecosystem nor the Supreme Court dares to hold Islamic theology accountable. The blame, somehow, always lands on Hindus who merely choose to speak up.

During the Nupur Sharma controversy, the hypocrisy was laid bare. Even as mobs threatened beheadings, burned effigies, and called for her death, the Supreme Court’s own oral observation outrageously declared that “Nupur Sharma was single-handedly responsible for what’s happening in the country.”

So while Islamist radicals bayed for blood, the national conversation shifted to blaming a woman who quoted directly from their own scriptures. And the same Left-liberal chorus that now weeps for “free speech” over every anti-Hindu film went completely silent when “Sar Tan Se Juda” mobs took over the streets.

Back then, not one among the so-called conscience-keepers of secular India found the courage to condemn the rioters. Instead, they found it convenient, even fashionable, to hold Nupur Sharma responsible for “setting the country on fire.” But today they want an emotional outburst, although reprehensible, be treated as a casteist attack on the CJI.

The usual suspects: Indira Jaising to Saba Naqvi, and countless online trolls

True to form, activist-lawyer Indira Jaising was quick to declare the shoe incident “a casteist attack.” 

Attorney General should take action for contempt of court for an ideological castest attack on a secular court https://t.co/Fk4XrWTGOX

— Indira Jaising (@IJaising) October 6, 2025

On what basis? None. Not a word uttered, not a slur spoken, not a reference made. But why let facts ruin a good narrative?

Saba Naqvi, the same ‘journalist’ who once mocked the Shivling found in the Gyanvapi mosque with a meme comparing it to an atomic model, added her signature secular wisdom, claiming the incident had “clear social dimensions.”

There are clear social dimensions to an attack on Dalit CJI when a lawyer attempted to throw a shoe at him. It is an assault on his dignity.

— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) October 6, 2025

In the liberal lexicon, “social dimensions” means: we don’t have evidence, but we’ll invent context.

Several social media trolls aligned with furthering Congress and opposition parties’ talking points joined the bandwagon to allege it was a “casteist attack” against a Dalit CJI.

संघ के एजेंट की तरह काम ना करने पर CJI गवई पर एक संघी मानसिकता के वकील ने जूता फेंका।

सड़कों की बात छोड़ों, देश का मुख्य न्यायाधीश बनने के बाद भी दलित व्यक्ति सुरक्षित नहीं है नरेंद्र युग में। pic.twitter.com/eZJxAhE7Ls

— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 Read More