Shoeting stars

When a routine journo in Jarnail Singh turned into an angry protester and hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram in protest against the clean chit given to 1984 riot-tainted Congressman Jagdish Tytler, he only acted like a copycat.

After all, shoe-throwing emanated from Iraq where another irate journalist threw one at then US President George W Bush to show his displeasure against America’s ruinous policies towards his native land. While Muntader al-Zaidi’s hurled shoe became a global asset, hotly sought by the Saudis for millions of dollars before it was summarily destroyed in a bid to not let it become more legendary than it already had, one really doesn’t know where Jarnail’s prized Reebok has gone. Maybe, it is on way to the Natural Museum of History. Maybe, the Congress has forgiven the thrower but not his shoe and, hence, it has faced sudden death.

While al-Zaidi’s shoe ended up pushing forward the sales of its Turkish maker by 300 per cent, one is yet to figure out how Reebok will use the India incident to promote its sales. Maybe, if the Government changes after the election, you will see hoardings telling you why you need to buy that particular brand and type. Maybe, like Fishfry, there would be a Jarnail line of boots adorning showcases in expensive malls.

According to one newspaper, this particular shoe was Jarnail’s most expensive buy ($60) during one of his assignment visits to the US. If that is, indeed, the case, Jarnail would be ruing more the loss of his high-price shoe than the perceived loss of media dignity over his act or, for that matter, speculation around how his single shoe status could catapult him into the rough and tumble of politics.

But the issue here is not about the shoe or Jarnail’s possible political career being made out of it. It is more about the impact a single hurl had on the political scenario.

On paper, Jarnail, howsoever apologetic he may be for having done what he did, has not only pushed the Congress into the embarrassment arena but also posed a major two-seat problem for the party in Delhi as both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar would have been sureshot winners. Now, Congress leaders aren’t at all sure about who to field from Tytler’s North-East Delhi and Sajjan’s South Delhi. So, the shoe has managed to alter equations against the Congress and for the Opposition to a large extent, at in Delhi.

Not just that, from here on Tytler and Sajjan could become permanent pariahs and even the cases against them could gain momentum, what with the CBI now becoming more watchful of its Governmental compliance and the courts deciding how unclean the clean chit really was.

Talking of the CBI and its propensity to official servility, it is only a coincidence that it has been caught in the act under a Congress-led regime. For years, and without a break ever, this investigating organ has been used and misused, moulded and martyred by Government after Government to serve its political interest. So many big guns with political connections have gone scot-free over the years that one has not just lost count but also the urge to be outraged by such blatant let-offs of the kind of Tytler the other day.

If at all the CBI or any such investigating limb of the Government has to have even a semblance of freedom, the statute needs to be altered and fanged enough to be able to stave off political interference without the CBI bosses being sent on a punishment posting for going after the truth. Mere chant of autonomy will only cushion the issue for times to come.

Returning to the now legendary shoe and how the recipients of the infamous hurls have reacted to it, one could say Bush and Chidambaram have many more things in common than just a poker face in the face of public humiliation. For one, both leaders have wonderful reflexes as both dodged the missile with utmost ease. Both kept a face straighter than a drunk snake in motion. Both decided to forget and forgive. Both ducked with consummate ease — not just the shoe but all the allegations, criticism, anger and frustration that came along with it.

Actually, if one goes through the two videos on Youtube, the only difference would be that Chidambaram was rather coquettish in ducking while Bush did it like an athletic man.

As for the shoes, in both cases, they merely highlighted wrongful acts by the respective Governments. As Bush continued unfazed with his Iraqi policy much after the hurl, the Congress party can do little to erase the 1984 massacre and if one were to seriously listen to its leaders arguing their case on various channels, the party is pushed not repentant about Tytler’s alleged involvement in the anti-Sikh riots. Which means much after the media focus shifts from the issue, the save-Tytler-save-Sajjan campaigns by the party would continue unfazed and maybe in a bypoll sometime later they would be back in Parliament.

Of course, the onus of this happening would be on the public which would then have let the issue die in its heart and the media which would be chasing a much more contemporary story. Of course, even Tytler would by then forgive the media for gunning for him and would start courting journos as lavishly as he is known to have all these 25 years following the riots!

Whatever may be in store for Tytler and the public in future, fact is that quirky ways of protests, especially in the West, have been as old as the crimes which trigger them. From bra burning feminists, to nude climate protesters, to streakers at high-profile sports events — the innovativeness of a protester has never seen any anorexia.

Only recently a German University was in the news for what the media called a constructive protest. Outraged by education budget cuts by the Government students and the faculty of this particular university decided to make their displeasure felt by doing something that is totally against the grain of protesters. Usually, the modus operandi of any protest is to disrupt proceedings, halt work and generally bring everything to a standstill.

But the protester brigade of this university decided to work more than ever before and be noticed. So, not only did one of its Physics professors organise the nation’s longest ever lecture (52 hour non-stop) but the students too made sure that even at 3 am, the class was choc-a-bloc.

Of course, it is another matter that the German Government is far from rolling back its austerity measures but the unique form of protest has won public hearts and hit headlines, thereby highlighting an issue which would otherwise have died a localised death.

Back in India, forms of protests have rarely been extra-ordinary. Hunger strikes, rail rokos, rallies, protest marches and more recently candlelighting among urban protesters is all that we have managed. Some individualistic acts inspired by movies have added some quirk to protests (like the Delhi lover who went up the water-tank and threatened to jump if his beloved did not say yes to marriage) but that has been all. The most innovative protest that has had a big impact was launched by environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna and it came to be known as the Chipko Movement. Many a tree was saved through this mode of protest in which the protesters would stick to the trees in a bid to save them from felling. It worked wonders. Maybe, the shoe-throwing will become more potent in years to come.

Published on April 12, 2009, Sunday Pioneer http://www.dailypioneer.com/168890/Shoeting-stars.html