Shoe Throwing

The latest shoe throwing was on Bollywood star Jeetendra when he was campaigning for the congress candidate Amrish Patel.Of late, shoe throwing on politicians have become a global trend, ever since a pair of shoes were thrown at Bush in the middle of a press conference last December by the Iraqi TV journalist Zaidi as "a farewell kiss from Iraqi people to the dog" .Bush joked "if you want details, the shoe size is 10".In January agitators at Bosnia, vented their anger against politicians by doing a shoe throwing protest.The organisers provided shoes for the protestors. Some of them brought their own old torn foot wear also. Soon after, in February footwear was thrown at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo at the Cambridge university by protestors. Virtual shoe throwing games at Bush became popular in internet, last December. One has to throw shoes at Bush's face with in 30 seconds in the virtual shoe throwing game.This was copied by a Bosnian website which invited internet surfers to throw virtual shoes at the serbian Prime Minister Dodik.Those days eggs and rotten tomatoes were used to humiliate politicians.Even recently eggs and rotten tomatoes were thrown at Subramaniam Swamy by protesting advocates at the Chennai High Court.It seems footwear is the new weapon in the protestors armoury. Throwing footwear as a protest was started years ago in Tamilnadu.EVR Periyar was a proclaimed atheist.Enraged by his anti God statements a sandal was thrown at him by protestors and went in to hiding. At that time Periyar was travelling in a Rickshaw.He stopped the Rickshaw,stood on it and loudly made anti God pronouncements, looking atthe direction from where the sandal came.Promptly another sandal was thrown at him from the hide out.He then said."Any way this is a new sandal.What either of us can do with one sandal?!!" and continued his journey with a pair of new sandals. Periyar was known for his thrifty practices. Needless to say he was happy to carry a new pair of sandals with him.With election campaign reaching a feverish pitch, in India also,shoe throwing incidents are the order of the day. Protesting against CBI gving a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler,a sikh journalist threw shoes on Home minister Chidambaram,while he was addressing a press conference this month.After the incident, Chidambaram jokingly said "his questions were on target,but not his shoes". Shoes were thrown at Congress candidate Naveen Jindal at Kurukshetra.All the flying missiles have failed to hit the target so far.I think the protestors should practice shoe throwing in a throwing range to hit the target.The politicians are however unruffled and in fact they have quickly perfected the art of ducking a flying object with the skills of a batsman facing a bouncer in the 22 yards strip.Jokes apart,this should not be encouraged and all those who indulge in shoe throwing should be punished severly.The punishment should deter others from repeating this.All right minded people should condemn this trend.India is a democratic country with great freedom for expression and speech.The media and press of india are mightier and potent than a pair of shoes.This fact must be borne in mind by all those who indulge in such undesirable activities.