Freedom's Untidy...Shoes Happen!!!

Many of us were not even born during the 1984 riots but the hurt still runs deep with many Sikhs introspecting on events of 25 years ago and empathizing with journalist Jarnail Singh for throwing a shoe at Home Minister P.Chidambaram. The emotions ran high when I was talking to a colleague today who happens to have seen the riots when he was in India.

‘I think it was a very bold and strong step. It not only showed the anguish and frustration of an individual but voiced the sentiments of the entire Sikh community against the judgment regarding the 1984 Sikh riots,’ a sikh student had to say.

If we as Indians, for a moment leave behind the regional bias which we always tend to carry, direct our opinion towards this event, we could say that Mr. P Chidambaram was at the loose end of an emotional collapse of the Sikh Journo and it would also be fair to comment that our political structure is loosing its ground day by day. The actions in the parliament reflect the insane and disorderly behavior of the elected, but for an Indian Journo to act the way he did speaks volumes of the emotional stress an ordinary Indian is succumbing to. The following is a sneak peak into the happening, and later we shall discuss the shoe throwing as a phenomenon and from a broader angle refreshing our memories to the Bush incident.

Chidambaram was replying to a question posed by a Sikh journalist on the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The shoe missed Palaniappan Chidambaram, who leaned back to avoid it. He later smiled and asked security guards to take the reporter out of the room.

"Please take him away," the minister said after the missile was thrown at him. Congress party workers immediately took the white turbaned journalist away.

The irate journalist, Jarnail Singh, who threw the shoe, has justified his action. Singh works at Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

As the action caused a flutter in the hall, a composed Chidambaram appealed to the reporters, "let not the action of one emotional person hijack the entire press conference. I have answered his questions to the best of my ability."

Responding to a question on the clean chit to Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Chidambaram said, "First of all let me make it clear that CBI is not under the home ministry. To my knowledge neither the mome ministry nor any ministry of the government had put any pressure on the CBI."

"CBI has only given a report to the court. It is for the court to accept or reject or ask for further investigation by CBI. Let us wait for the court decision," he said.

As the journalist persisted with his questions, Chidambaram told him "no arguments, you are using this forum..." following which the journalist hurled his shoe.

An unapologetic Singh said he will not apologise for his action, though his manner of protest might have been wrong.

"My manner of protest might have been wrong, but I did not intend to hurt anyone," he said.

Flying footwear has suddenly become the world's favorite protest statement. The trend began in December, when an Iraqi journalist hurled both his shoes and a torrent of abuse at George W. Bush during his last Baghdad press conference.

Shoe throwing has since become a globalised phenomenon. (“Bootslapping (future verb): to express political displeasure by throwing footwear.”...Lolz.) The antiwar group Code Pink pelted a Bush effigy with shoes outside the White House. A Ukrainian protester tossed his loafers at a politician, declaring that the “shoe is going to become an important means for ordinary people to influence their leaders”.

In the future of political protest the shoes will continue to fly, but with varying significance. In Arab culture, hitting someone with a shoe is an extreme form of insult. Throwing a shoe at the Chinese Prime Minister in China would be an act of suicidal bravery. The same act in a Cambridge lecture hall required little courage: merely a good throwing arm, a reasonable aim and a desire to be noticed.

Shoe hurling may be hugely symbolic or plain silly, but its significance lies less in the intentions of the thrower than the reaction to it. How a state and society respond to this sort of deliberately offensive act says an enormous amount about a country, its notions of individual freedom, justice and sense of humour.

Gandhi would never have lobbed his sandals to make a point, but shoe throwing is hardly the most violent form of protest either, which is what makes it a strange sort of political litmus. A country's very soul may be reflected in its response to a smelly insole chucked at an important person: this is the “the shoe test”.

This is the civilised, measured approach to protest, even protest that involves flinging shoes around and insulting foreign dignitaries. Mr Bush, oddly, put it best, after ducking two size-ten missiles hurled by an angry Iraqi in his socks: “It's a way to draw attention... I believe that a free society is emerging.”…Huh what a joke.

As Donald Rumsfeld might have put it: Freedom's Untidy. Free people are free to do bad things. Shoes happen.

As for the Indian shoe protester, he was taken to the police station after the incident but was let off without any charges slapped against him. He left the conference asking his community to be calm, he said: "Nothing should be done to break the peace of the country... Country comes first."