In what is India’s first “Shoegate” incident, a journalist hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Jarnail Singh, a journalist working for a Hindi daily, took the drastic step to protest the clean chit given by the CBI to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, who is an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Earlier this month, the CBI had sought the Supreme Court’s permission to close the case against Tytler.
A bemused Chidambaram, who took evasive action to avoid being hit, said “gently, gently” as security personnel whisked Singh away. “Let not the action of one emotional person hijack the entire press conference. I have answered his questions to the best of my ability,” he added.
Singh took the drastic step as he was unsatisfied with Chidambaram’s reply to his question about the CBI’s decision. Chidambaram had said: “First of all let me make it clear that CBI is not under the Home Ministry. To my knowledge, neither the Home 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 added. While Singh persisted with his questions, Chidambaram told him: “No arguments, you are using this forum...” At this point, Singh hurled a shoe at the Home Minister.
Chidambaram brushed aside the incident, saying: “I forgive him (Singh).”
However, Singh was unapologetic. “My manner of protest might have been wrong, but I did not intend to hurt anyone,” he said, adding: “For the last 25 years this has been happening. So what other method is left (to protest).”
“I was not hitting him. I had no intention to hit him. I just wanted to protest and it happened... If I would meet him (Chidambaram), I would say sorry to him. I have nothing personal against him,” Singh said later.
Describing himself as an “apolitical” person, Singh said he was “not demanding from Congress that it should drop Tytler”.
“There should be no politics on the matter and I do not want anybody to take any mileage out of it,” he said adding, “The issue is emotional.”
“As a journalist I regret my behaviour at Chidambaram’s press conference today. I should not have behaved that way,” Singh said and cautioned: “Nobody should follow what I did... this is not the right way to protest”.
Hurling shoes at politicians as an act of protest has found notoriety after an Iraqi journalist, Mumtazar al-Zaidi, hurled his shoes at the then US President George W Bush during the latter’s farewell visit to Iraq in December last year. While al-Zaidi is cooling his heels behind bars, the police have released Singh from detention.
