Lawyers Say Chief Justice “Calm” Despite Flying Shoe
Indian Chief Justice BR Gavai remained calm" while the shoe flung at him by a lawyer was approaching, witnesses said Monday, and he remained so after it brushed against" him and another justice and fell harmlessly to the ground. No one was injured by the projectile, and the assault failed to slow, even for an instant, the steely-eyed jurist's relentless pursuit of justice (or whatever ridiculous thing the case was probably about).
After [the shoe-thrower] was apprehended by the courtroom security," one witness said, the chief justice told the lawyers to continue their arguments and not get distracted."
Chief Justice Gavai has not publicly commented on the incident, and authorities said no charges will be filed, though this was plainly an assault. But the shoe-flinger, identified as lawyer Rakesh Kishore, has reportedly already been suspended from practice, showing just how fast that can happen if you were to do something like, let's say, throw a shoe at your country's chief justice.
You will probably also not get your shoe back.
What was Kishore so mad about? He seems to have felt that Gavai disrespected the Hindu god Vishnu during a recent hearing on a petition. Vishnu did not personally appear in court, so far as I can tell; according to the BBC, the petition was a plea to reconstruct a seven-foot idol of Lord Vishnu at a temple in Madhya Pradesh state." The report doesn't say what happened to the idol or what the grounds for the petition were, but the petitioners did not succeed. This is purely publicity interest [sic] litigation," Gavai reportedly said from the bench, adding, [g]o and ask the deity himself to do something."
Well, there is often a requirement that you exhaust all other remedies before asking a court to intervene, but at least one Hindu found the comment disrespectful to the deity Himself.
[Gavai] not only refused to accept the prayer," Kishore told an online news outlet, but made fun of the Lord Vishnu." Speaking hours after throwing the shoe," as the BBC put it, Kishore said he had not been able to sleep" since Gavai made the comment on September 16. After seething about it for three weeks, apparently, Kishore decided throwing a shoe at the Chief Justice during a court proceeding would be the best way to proceed.
Throwing a shoe at someone in public is seen as an act of disrespect and humiliation in India and many other countries," the BBC claims, which seems more or less accurate though I don't think it has to be a shoe or in public to qualify. Having said that, back when somebody threw a shoe at then-President George W. Bush (see Bush Survives Shoe Barrage During Baghdad Press Conference" (Dec. 14, 2008)), there were suggestions that hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq" because it means the target is even lower than the shoe." I can think of significantly worse insults, but I don't claim to be an expert on the cultures involved.
It's not clear to me exactly why Kishore considered this comment disrespectful to Lord Vishnu. I suppose one could interpret it as implying that if you did ask Vishnu to do something, nothing would happen. But that wouldn't necessarily mean He didn't exist or was powerless; it could just mean that (for example) He didn't like that particular statue or had more important things to do than listen to you bitch about it. I mean, just mentioning Lord Vishnu isn't disrespectful. Is it? See, e.g., Man Says He Can't Come to the Office Because He Gets More Done at Home as Lord Vishnu" (May 21, 2021) (discussing man's explanation why he needed to work remotely). That guy claimed to be the tenth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, but at the time of the report had not yet proven it. If he did so, please let me know. But at the time of writing, at least, this had nothing to do with Vishnu Himself. See also Lord Hanuman Gets Another Court Summons" (Feb. 25, 2016) (not being disrespectful to Him either).
I have arguably been disrespectful to the Supreme Court of India more than once-well, not the Court itself but its legal writing, which, unless it has dramatically improved recently, is far and away the worst in the English-speaking world. See Luxuriate in the Octopoid Embrace of These Legal Postulations" (Feb. 15, 2017) (which, I warn you, you may not be able to unsee); see also High Court Vomits Truth in Frozen-Guru Case" (July 6, 2017) (not their highest court, but still). But I kept my shoes on.
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