A Shot in the Arm

On June 28, Chandrashekhar Azad, the Bhim Army chief and national president of the Azad Samaj Party (ASP), was visiting Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district when four assailants in a car opened fire on his sports utility vehicle. Providence was on his side. One of the bullets just grazed past his abdomen, and he was out of the hospital the very next day.

- Prashant Srivastava

The attack on the 37-year-old Dalit lawyer/ activist-turned-politician comes at a time when his party is in talks on a possible anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance in UP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. He has not only survived the assassination bid, but may have in fact gained from it politically.