Auld lang syne
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And so, another year has passed. Lots of ups and downs, unexpected
surprises and disappointments and a fairly stagnant year of personal
development with...
The Last Pole
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I stood upon the ruins of what was once a city;
Warsaw is nothing more than a mere wisp of a memory now,
As it was not, ever since they had arrived.
I stare...
It's become a bit of a fad this election season. Yes I'm talking about throwing footwear.
This afternoon, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had a slipper hurled at him while addressing an election gathering in Channarayapatna in Hassan district.
The slipper missed its mark but fell on the stage. Chandrashekhar, a resident of Kodihalli, has been arrested by the police. Karnataka's law minister Suresh Kumar said other leaders would have forgiven similar incidents but it seems the CM decided that the police should carry out the necessary action under law to deter others. Looks like the shoe throwers' luck has just run out.
Frankly, the whole flying footwear protest thing is getting a bit boring. Think of something else guys, be innovative. ;-) Just kidding. Kids, don't try this at home (or at election rallies) :D .
About an hour back, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had a taste of the new trend. At Ahmedabad, a 28-year old computer engineer threw his shoe at the Prime Minister. But there seems to have been a wide cordon of around 20m in front of the dais, so this guy's shoe never even got close. Damn, why try if you're sure to miss.
The man has been taken away by the police and the preliminary questioning by the Crime Branch has revealed that the man just wanted some publicity (yeah right, like this was the best way to get it). Anyway, the PM has (graciously, cos its election season ;-) ) asked the police not to press charges against the man.
And the latest victim of the footwear frenzy is Jeetendra, the actor, who was campaigning for the Congress in Maharashtra.
On the 21st of April, Jeetendra was at a Congress road show in the town of Nandurbar, when he was at the receiving end of a slipper flying through the air which fortunately (or unfortunately) MISSED!!!!! The thrower, Dilip Ingle, was set upon by party workers, though no case was booked against him.
But its not just footwear being thrown around, biriyani is making the rounds too. A food packet (allegedly containing the above mentioned delicacy) was thrown at Congress MP Shantaram Naik, on Apil 19th, while he was at a rally at Curchorem town in Goa. The packet was thrown by Rama Gauns Desai, a party worker of the Congress, who then shouted at Naik "You all are liars", in Konkani. He was arrested and a case was registered against him, though Naik said the man might have been upset when Naik hadn't showed up at an event that Desai had invited him to.
Sorry about the late post, but my net connection was down for a day or two.
Today, my question finds an answer. None other than the saffron party BJP's prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani. The flying-footwear fiesta's latest victim had just got on stage at a rally in Katni in Madhya Pradesh, when a slipper was thrown at him.
Amazingly, the thrower was the ex-Katni District President of the BJP, Pavas Agarwal. Apparently, the man was miffed at the way he'd been left on the sidelines thanks to some things that had been happening within the party. He found himself led backstage and escorted away by the police.
And yes, he missed again. SIGH.......
This is my fourth consecutive post relating to shoes being thrown at politicians. Let's see how many more will follow, what with the trend being quite a rage among the people :D .....
So, considering the shoe throws I've mentioned over past weeks, the latest SCORE :
SHOTS - 5 ( 2 shoes thrown at Bush, but it counts as 1) SHOTS ON GOAL - 2 HITS - 0 Accuracy - 40%
While we're all on the topic of shoe-throwing, there's a lesser known (and heavily censored in China) throw that slipped past a bit unnoticed.
The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was on a three-day visit to the UK and he had signed several trade agreements with the British PM Gordon Brown. The incident occurred during his speech at the University of Cambridge to a select group of students (mainly Chinese). As you can see in the videos below, a man with a German accent stood up at the back of the audience and shouted, “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?”
While he continued, “How can you listen to these lies?”, security guards converged on him. Before they could get him though, he let fly a heavy grey trainer. It landed a few feet away from Wen. (Damn it, missed the politician AGAIN!!!)
Police in Cambridge said that a 27-year-old man, Martin Jahnke (a German national) had been charged with a public order offence and would appear in court the next week and he faced a maximum fine of 5000 pounds and six months in prison if convicted.
The audience shouted at the man "Get out", "Shame on you" while Jahnke was led away. Do note, the audience was mainly of Chinese origin. Mr. Wen however merely termed the incident as "despicable". He later urged leniency for the man who'd thrown the shoe.
A demonstrator also threw an egg when the premier arrived for an engagement in London at the weekend. I couldn't find a video of the egg though.
Check out the videos of the shoe-throw below:
Wen Jiabao's reaction to the throw - doesn't show the shoe, but you can hear it when it hits.
This video shows you the protester shouting at the Chinese Premier and being escorted out of the hall.
A few days ago Jarnail Singh's shoe flew past Home Minister Chidambaram's bemused face. Today, another brave soul named Raj Pallet fly a shoe at Navin Jindal, while he was campaigning in Kurukshetra. The 65-year old retired School Principal who took the shot missed, but the police didn't quite let him go. Apparently the old man was pissed off at the Congress government's policies. Add to that his son allegedly losing a job at Kurukshetra university when the Congress came to power.
Navin Jindal's in a forgiving mood, but the police have booked him for public misbehaviour under the influence of alcohol.
The miss can be excused though, because the poor man was drunk. Oh, if only he'd been sober.....
So many rallies, so many meetings, so many opportunities left before election day. What I want to know is ....... Who's next??!!!
What drives some journalists to show throes I wonder? Perhaps its the new 'in-thing'....
Today, Jarnail Singh of Dainik Jagran decided to give it a shot (quite literally) at the Indian Home Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram. He was asking the minister a question about Jagdish Tytler (a Congress leader allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh riots) who had been given a clean chit of late. In the words of Jarnail Singh himself, what he (Mr. Singh) did was perhaps not the right way to go about a protest. The Congress and the Government have decided not to press any charges against him, so he's been let off. Here's a video of the incident. Just look at the expression on Chidambaram's face. Priceless!!
If you're looking for the guy who started this novel (and rather funny method) of protest - you'll find the video below. This of course is the Iraqi shoe-thrower, Mr. al-Zaidi. In the middle of the news conference, (a royally pissed-off) Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,", hurled one shoe and then followed it up with "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." before hurling another size-10 at (then) American President George W. Bush. And boy, what an awesome throw. And George Bush's first dodge was like Keanu Reeves from the Matrix. Cool!
Doesn't quite appear to be too effective though, given that: 1. Neither thrower has hit their target. 2. Though Mr. Singh was let off lightly, al-Zaidi was handed a 3-year jail sentence.
Lets wait till reporters of the fairer sex take this up as a hobby, then it'll be high heels ...... ouch!!! When that happens, I sure wouldn't want to be in any world leaders' shoes (no pun intended). One thing that bugs me, though. Why do these guys always miss ;-) ?
