Slapping up a storm

Slaps and ministers in India have had a long history. Jharkhand Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, who won the Vishrampur Assembly seat about six months ago, was on Sunday caught on camera hitting a Rashtriya Janata Dal member, Shambhunath Chandrawanshi. Some two months ago, Goa minister Francisco Mickky Pacheco was convicted for slapping a government servant on duty in July 2006. In 2013, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lost her cool, threatening to slap photo-journalists, though she didn't actually carry out the threat. In 2011, then agriculture minister Sharad Pawar was slapped by a youth who was apparently fed up of the growing inflation, corruption and graft cases in the country. And, if our memory serves us, about a decade back, then Punjab finance minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal drew flak for slapping a Congress supporter following a scuffle.