India, Oct. 20 -- The recent incident of a shoe being hurled at Chief Justice B R Gavai inside a courtroom was roundly condemned at a gathering in the city on Sunday. "That was not a shoe thrown at the judge, it was a chappal thrown at the Constitution of India," said Arjun Dangle, writer and co-founder of the Dalit Panthers, to a packed hall of about 200 people. Writer and academic Ashalata Kamble said that the incident showed that although Dalits had "entered the middle class and even the upper middle class", they still were disrespected and denied equality.

The footwear was flung by a lawyer who was disgruntled by a remark made by Gavai during a hearing pertaining to a place of worship. Gavai is a Dalit and the first neo-Buddhist to b...