“Go and ask the deity itself to do something now. You say you are a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu. So go and pray now."

With these dismissive words, a Hindu petitioner was sent packing by the Chief Justice of India, BR Gavai.

The petitioner had approached the top court hoping that it would intervene and order the Madhya Pradesh administration or the Archaeological Survey of India to restore a mutilated statue of Lord Vishnu. The petitioner had claimed that his religious rights were violated as he was forced to pay oblations to the defaced statue placed in a temple that was part of the Khajuraho cluster in Madhya Pradesh. Historical records show that the statue bore the brunt of Islamist anti-Hindu iconoclasm during Mughal invasions.

The insensitive abnegation of the petition by the Chief Justice of India is a........

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