Respected Chief Justice Gavai,
On 16th September, you dismissed a plea for the restoration of a mutilated idol of Lord Vishnu at the Javari temple in Khajuraho. The petitioner, Rakesh Dalal, argued with humility and faith. His petition stated that restoring the idol was not about archaeology, but about dignity, worship, and civilisational justice.
Your reply was not a legal argument or a jest. It seemed like sarcasm at the Hindu Identity and Faith:
“Go and ask the deity itself to do something now. You say you are a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu. So go and pray.”
The words were like salt on centuries-old wounds. For Hindus, it echoed the very taunts of medieval iconoclasts: “If your gods are real, why didn’t they protect themselves?”
The Precedent Chief Justice Gavai Ignored
Just last month, the Supreme Court directed the ASI to supervise the repair of the Ashiq Allah Dargah and the Chillagah of Baba Farid in Delhi. The order aimed to protect and preserve the historical significance and integrity of the 13th-century structures. Sarcasm or the suggestion that devotees should pray to the Pir to restore the structure was particularly missing. A 2-judge bench issued a simple, dignified directive to restore the dargah and protect the monument.
So why the difference when a Hindu petitioner requests repairs for a Lord Vishnu idol?
Why respect for one faith, mockery for another? If legal consistency demanded dismissal, so be it. Bharat’s Hindus do not riot on the streets against the law. However, mockery of Hindu Dharma or the petitioner is not the law. The words hurt every Hindu who heard them. And they hold immeasurable potential in days to come to mock Hindu identity by people of other faiths.
A Billion Prayers Deserve Dignity, Not Derision
Bharat respects the chair of the Chief Justice. Indians obey the words spoken from that bench. But every man who sits on the chair must earn the love of the nation by his ability to deliver sound justice. When a devotee comes seeking justice for a beheaded idol, and the highest judge of the land responds with a joke, the wound is not personal. It is civilisational.
It tells every Hindu child that when you seek dignity through the Constitution, you will be told to “pray instead.”
Would any judge say to a Muslim petitioner: “If you want your waqf land back, go ask Allah to restore it”?
Would any judge tell a Christian litigant: “If you want your church repaired, pray to Jesus to rebuild it”?
Everyone knows the answer.
He Said, We Ask — The Hypocrisy of Secularism
- He said: “Go and pray.”
- We say: “We already pray, but we also believe in the Constitution you swore to protect.”
- He said: “This is ASI’s job, not ours.”
- We ask: “But you had no hesitation directing ASI to repair a dargah. Why one yardstick for Hindus and another for others?”
- He said: “This is publicity litigation.”
- We question: “Every petition begins with one individual’s courage. Is the dignity of Lord Vishnu less worthy of attention than a Christian grave or a Muslim shrine?”
The mockery came not in isolation, but in a context Hindus know too well. From Nurpiur Sharma’s case to Waqf amendments to issuing a directive to the President, Bharat feels isolated by its judiciary. The kid-glove treatment of other religions is duly noted. The asymmetry or bias shows a systemic problem. It tells Hindus: “peaceful” aggression earns attention and respect; Hindu restraint earns ridicule.
Beyond the Courtroom: A Cry to Higher Powers
As Hindus, we are taught the story of Bhakt Prahlad. He, too, was mocked for his devotion to Vishnu, asked to pray for protection while his tormentors laughed. Yet Prahlad’s prayers were answered.
Perhaps this is where we stand today – The time has come for Hindus to stop expecting justice from men in robes, and start seeking it from higher powers.
Because in Bharat, the land of Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti, justice for Hindus is no longer an assumption, but a prayer.
Chief Justice Gavai could have said: “This is for ASI, not for us.” That would have been enough. Instead, he chose to ridicule the faith. That is not expected of the man in the chair; it taints the chair itself, and harms Dr. Ambedkar’s Constitution that asks all faiths to be treated the same.
We Hindus will continue to pray, to respect the chair of CJI – but our respect for you personally has been deeply shaken.
Until Lord Vishnu restores what was taken, until our gods’ dignity is repaired, the least we expect from the man in the chair is to act like an unbiased Chief Justice of India.
– Every Hindu Citizen of Bharat
