What the Attack on the CJI and the Lack of Action Against His Assailant Tell Us About New India; SC Wants Details of Bihar Voter List Deletions; Pakistani Tribute to Zubeen

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Snapshot of the day

October 7, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

Barely a day after the Chief of Justice of India was insulted and assaulted by a Hindu fanatic in open court, the leaders and minders of Naya Bharat have quickly moved on. That the assailant is a self-professed ‘Sanatan Dharmi’ and CJI BR Gavai a Dalit are not incidental but central to both the attack and the muted reaction it has drawn from the ruling establishment and the media ecosystem it controls. Yes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a statement yesterday condemning the incident but this came several hours after Opposition leaders had spoken up. It is reasonable to surmise that his initial silence emboldened right-wing activists to defend the attack on the CJI in the vilest of terms. And no punitive action is being taken against them. Conscious of the fact that he ought not to be a judge in his own cause, Justice Gavai took the incident in stride and did not initiate action but the failure of the government and its law officers, not to speak of the Delhi Police to take any action against the attacker speaks volumes.

The free pass given to the attacker – 71-year-old lawyer Rakesh Kishore – is all the more shocking given that he has said he has “no regrets” over his conduct. Hours after the incident, Kishore was busy justifying what he did in an interview to ANI rather than cooling his heels in jail. Confirming that he was unhappy about Justice Gavai’s remarks over a PIL seeking the restoration of a Vishnu idol in Khajuraho last month – as well as a number of other decisions by the court – Kishore said that ‘God made him’ attack the chief justice. “No sanatani should remain silent in their homes. They should do anything they can,” he added in remarks he claimed were not meant to be instigatory. After all they have “been slaves to small communities” for “thousands of years”, Kishore explained. As expected he also said that Justice Gavai is not Dalit anymore by way of having become Buddhist. “He [was] first