Ahmedabad: The increasing use of divisive rhetoric based on religion, caste and ethnicity poses a major challenge to the constitutional ideal of fraternity as well as the sense of unity in the country, Supreme Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra has said. He was speaking on the theme of ‘Fraternity: Spirit of the Constitution’ at a national council meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, a lawyers’ organisation, at Vadtal in Gujarat’s Kheda district. The use of identity politics for votes by politicians can deepen social divisions, he warned. Divisive ideologies, growing economic inequality and social injustice are major threats to the spirit of brotherhood, and upholding fraternity is a “shared responsibility” of common citizens, institutions as well as leaders, Justice Mishra said. Among the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice, fraternity shines as the unifying thread that binds the fabric of our democratic society, and without fraternity, the other ideals remain fragile, “like a tripod missing a crucial leg,” he said. “A major challenge to fraternity is the increasing use of divisive rhetoric based …