Outraged by the shoe attack on the Dalit Chief Justice of India, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday held a fierce protest outside the lawyer’s residence. Led by AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj, party workers carried a garland of shoes meant for the assaulter whom BJP trolls are publicly worshipping under state protection, but were stopped by the police.
Saurabh Bharadwaj called the attack an insult to Babasaheb Dr B. R. Ambedkar, and said the people of the country would never tolerate such humiliation. He called out the BJP for trying to crush the voice of justice and warned that if the party ever succeeded in changing the constitution, it would attempt to chain Dalits again with the symbols of oppression — haandi and jhaadu.
AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj stated, “The lawyer of ‘Bhakts’ — the so-called hero who threw a shoe at the Dalit judge — is a big problem even in his own apartment; there are complaints of him threatening people and getting physical. All the neighbours have even given written complaints to the police about him. Does he do this at God’s command? These stupid people are used in this way. He is neither a good lawyer nor a good citizen.”
He continued, “The BJP wants to silence the voice of the people. When Sonam Wangchuk was arrested, the Aam Aadmi Party held a ‘dharna’. Today, when there was an attempt to attack the Chief Justice, the country’s smallest national party, AAP was the first to take to the streets. For the past month the BJP’s troll army has been targeting the Chief Justice. Even the Chief Justice wearing new shoes is a crime for them. If PM Modi can wear a ₹15 lakh suit, foreign sunglasses and use a foreign car, why can’t the Chief Justice buy new shoes? His salary is equal to the Prime Minister’s. But these people cannot stomach a Dalit holding a high post.”
He condemned the social-media campaign stating that the attacking lawyer is being made out to be ‘God’s avatar’, a ‘true Sanatani’ and a ‘hero’. Some are writing that this is the beginning, that such ‘anti-Hindu’ judges will be taught a lesson on the streets. None of this could be written or said without state protection. It is supported by the BJP government sitting at the Centre; only then do small trolls get such courage.
Saurabh Bharadwaj added, “In 100 years the RSS has never made a Dalit its ‘Sarsanghchalak’. RSS people wanted to make the Chief Justice’s mother the chief guest at the RSS’s 100th anniversary, but when she said she is Ambedkarite and cannot go with the RSS, suddenly she became ‘anti-Sanatani’. This is the RSS’s double character. When Delhi CM Rekha Gupta insulted Hanuman and Maa Durga, their ‘Sanatani’ did not wake up. They remained silent in the Ankita Bhandari murder, the Hathras rape, the Kuldeep Sengar case. But when a shoe was thrown at a Dalit Chief Justice, their ‘Sanatani’ woke up. These are false ‘Sanatanis’ and the greatest enemies of Hinduism.”
Pointing to BJP’s 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, he asserted, “During the 2024 Lok Sabha election the BJP wanted to change the constitution by shouting the slogan of crossing 400 seats, but the people defeated that. Today we are on the streets because the BJP did not get 400+ seats and Babasaheb’s constitution is alive. If they change this constitution, they will try to tie a ‘haandi-jhaadu’ around every Dalit’s neck. We demand punishment for the attacking lawyer; he has hidden, but how long will he hide? We came carrying a ‘shoes’ wreath’, yet he is hiding behind the police.”
Meanwhile, AAP MLA from Kondli, Kuldeep Kumar, stated, “The attack on Chief Justice B. R. Gavai is not an attack on one person but on every Dalit, backward class and minority in the country who believe in the constitution. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us the power of the vote, and with that power we will take revenge on this hate-spreading BJP government. On social media the BJP’s troll army and their supporters are tying haandi and jhaadu round the Chief Justice’s neck. They are trying to revive a 5,000-year-old mentality of slavery. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us freedom, but the BJP-RSS together want to make us slaves again. We will not tolerate such a government and will uproot it.”
Condemning the insult to the Chief Justice, AAP Delhi Women’s Wing president Sarika Chaudhary said, “It is extremely unfortunate that the Chief Justice of the country was humiliated in this manner. A person from the Dalit community reaches this position only after study, taunts and countless struggles — and yet this is the behaviour he faces? That lawyer tried to throw a shoe at the Chief Justice and has now gone into hiding. This insult is not just to one judge but to every Dalit, every woman and every young person in the country. The Chief Justice looks after the country’s justice and gives verdicts; an attack on him is an attack on the constitution.”
“If this attack had been on a BJP leader or the Prime Minister, would that lawyer have been spared? Would he not have been immediately put in jail? But because the Chief Justice is from the Dalit community, no action has been taken against the lawyer. It was the strength of the Dalit community that brought the BJP to power and made Narendra Modi prime minister three times, made Rekha Gupta Delhi’s CM and made Yogi Adityanath Uttar Pradesh CM twice. So why this injustice against the same Dalit community,” she asked.
