By Vimal Sumbly
After Supreme Court lawyer Rakesh Kishore tried to hurl some papers on Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan described it as a “dastardly attempt by a lawyer with a Brahmanical mind set to intimidate the CJI”.
This is because the Chief Justice of India, who professes Buddhist faith, is believed to come from the Dalit community. The lawyer, who tried to hurl papers on the CJI, was assumed to be a “Brahmin”. He has later clarified and reiterated that he is a Dalit himself. Even if he may not be a Dalit and even if he may be a Brahmin, should his action be attributed to the entire Brahmin community and should the entire community be blamed for it?
This is the new normal in modern day India to blame the “Brahmins” and the “Brahmanical mind-set”, as Prashant Bhushan put it, for any socio-political issues. It was a lawyer who felt aggrieved, for right or wrong reasons, who resorted to a highly unacceptable and reprehensible way of protest and defiance. The law obviously will take its own course.
However, CJI Gavai has been gracious and magnanimous enough not to press charges. He directed the Supreme Court registry not to press for charges and ask the Delhi Police, which had detained Kishore, to release him and also return his shoes, which he had reportedly tried to hurl at him (the CJI), while actually he hurled some papers.
But the “liberal ecosystem”, was already on the job to malign the entire Brahmin community for the act of a single individual who was presumed to be a “Brahmin”, while actually he is not, as he claims himself to be a Dalit.
This is the extreme level of stereotyping of the Brahmin community. There is a trend of using “Brahmanism” and “Manu-ism” (philosophy of Manu) interchangeably. Manu is believed to be the architect of the “caste system” that maltreated the Dalits in India. “Manu-vadi/Brahmin-vadi” is a frequently used phrase suggesting the same thing and intended at maligning and stereotyping the Brahmin community in the most brutal way.
Punjab militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale also used to address the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a “Brahmini” (daughter of a Brahmin) in a derogatory way. Gandhi was the daughter of Brahmin parents, Pandit Jawaharlal and Kamla Nehru.
Let us go back to April 7, 2009 when a Delhi-based Sikh journalist, Jarnail Singh hurled a shoe at the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram at the AICC. Jarnail Singh had a grievance with the Congress and the Home Minister in particular over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) having closed the case against Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler about their alleged involvement in anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984. The Congress had also allotted them the party tickets to contest the 2009 General Elections, which were later withdrawn.
Nobody attributed Jarnail Singh’s act of “defiance” to the entire Sikh community then. While people expressed sympathies with him and came to his defence, Rakesh Kishore also says that he felt hurt after CJI Gavai’s remarks about Lord Vishnu. This, however, is not to justify or defend Kishore’s act, which is undoubtedly unacceptable and condemnable.
Also read: Won’t affect me: CJI Gavai after shoe hurled during SC hearing
Chidambaram, like CJI Gavai also did not press for the charges. However, Jarnail lost his job as a journalist. He was instantly glorified. His “sentiments” were instantly “understood” that he was feeling hurt. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) instantly offered him a job, which he gracefully declined.
Jarnail Singh joined the Aam Aadmi Party and contested as its candidate from the West Delhi parliamentary constituency in 2014. Although he lost the election, he got over three lakh votes. The AAP again fielded him in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections from Rajouri Garden constituency and he won. Jarnail Singh resigned in 2017 as he was fielded from Lambi in Punjab against Akali veteran and sitting Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He lost from here. Jarnail Singh passed away in 2019 after suffering from COVID.
There is another AAP legislator with the same name, Jarnail Singh, who is an MLA from Tilak Nagar and has served as the co-in charge of the AAP for Punjab.
Unlike Jarnail Singh, who was glorified and his act justified, Rakesh Kishore is being described as a “Brahmin bigot”, despite his repeated assertions that he is not a Brahmin, but a Dalit Hindu. He says he was annoyed and aggrieved with the CJI mocking at Lord Vishnu, while dismissing a petition for restoration of Lord Vishnu’s idol in Khajuraho.
The way the “Brahmin” community is being “stereotyped” reminds of the “anti-Semitism”, which has emerged in the West once again. In India, “Brahmanism” is identified with the “rising Hindutva” sentiment. Those against the Hindutva, conveniently attribute the ideology to the Brahmins. Hindutva is a political ideology quite different from Hinduism and Brahmanism, if there really exists anything like Brahmanism. One may agree or disagree with the Hindutva ideology, but it has been widely accepted in India like any other political ideology, even though some of its critics and opponents may compare it with Nazism of Fascism.
“Brahmins” are straightway identified with the ruling BJP. If one has to blame and abuse the BJP, they will abuse “Brahmanism” as if the two are synonymous.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to the Teli caste, which comes under the Other Backward Classes (OBC). Union Home Minister Amit Shah belongs to the Jain community. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is a Rajput. Where are the Brahmins in positions of power in the so called “Brahmanical” set up of the BJP? Yes, there may be a few ministers like Nitin Gadkari, but they do not hold any positions of influence or power. That way a few Brahmin faces are in every political party, even in the BSP, that is supposed to mainly represent the Dalits. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi identifies himself as a “Jenu-dhari (wearing sacred thread) Brahmin.
In the “Brahmanical BJP”, there are 46 Dalit and only 13 Brahmin Lok Sabha MPs. But when it comes to blaming anything on the BJP, it is the “Brahmanical mind set” that is to be blamed, because, there is a pathological hatred against the Brahmin community that is being glorified and weaponised.
The way the Brahmin community is stereotyped and abused in India today, in the name of criticising Hindutva, is worse than the racial/ caste abuse against the Dalit community. The Dalit community is still protected by a special law under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, while the Brahmins are like sitting ducks, easy to be abused with all impunity, like the Jews in the West in the past. Even the Jews are protected under laws against anti-Semitism in force in many western countries.
Follow us
