India, Oct. 13 -- Advocate Rakesh Kishore's dramatic gesture did not merely disrupt proceedings; it ripped open old wounds, spotlighting the unease wrought by a judiciary increasingly accused of marching in lockstep with the ambitions of power, rather than standing guard over liberty.

Written by Pradipta Guha

Like a thunderbolt crashing through the vaulted solemnity of the nation's highest court, a single shoe arced toward Chief Justice BR Gavai-scarlet in its defiance, heavy with symbolism, and laden with the unrest brewing in India's democracy.

The Supreme Court-a temple of justice once held sacrosanct-became, in an instant, a battlefield for ruptured faith, its silence on the oppressed now echoing louder than the shout of any protes...