In Dec 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw not one but both his loafers at George W Bush. I am not sure how much fame that journalist got there in Iraq, but yes, by following the same strategy, one of our journalists, Jarnail Singh has got enough fame to lead rest of his life with much more ease with so many offers coming his way.
To give a brief background, Jarnail Singh (a correspondent with the Hindi newspaper “Dainik Jagran”) threw one of his shoes at Mr. Chidambaram in protest against the Congress party’s decision to field Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar – accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case – for the Lok Sabha elections. All this happened during a press conference at the Congress headquarters when the Minister refused to discuss on the Sikhs being denied justice by the party.
Jarnail Singh throws Shoe at Chidambaram
You know what perks he got for this gesture of firing shoe at our Home Minister P. Chidambaram? Check out:
* The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced a case reward of Rs. 2,00,000 for his “courage & bravery”.
* Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann has offered a Lok Sabha Ticket.
* The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee has offered to give a job if his current employer fires him.
Wow! That’s so cool. Well, I too am thinking of firing a shoe at my ___ ? 😉
Never mind.
Anyways, coming to the point, just look at the offers he is getting for what he did, money, Lok Sabha ticket, job and what not. Well, I am not against his protest, but my question is does he really worth the things he is offered now? Lets evaluate one bye one.
* Cash prize: Why? You think its a great achievement to throw shoe at people? Or you think its like winning the world cup of which the whole country would be proud of?
* Lok Sabha Ticket: Aha! This makes some sense to me as the young fellow looks to be having enough courage and what we call in hindi, the junoon, to fight against unjust and evil. So, he can become a good politician, and of course, this opinion is just based on his first impression.
* Job: Well, on what bases? Just because he took his shoe in his hand? or just to put themselves in the state of showing pity when he is fired? or just for show-off? But its always welcome to hire him following the usual recruitment process.
After all this, coming to main the question, whatever he did is right? I completely condemn such behaviors. What the Iraqi journalist did is against Bush, who is not from Iraq. But here its a different ball game altogether. Chidambaram is our man, our own country-man. If there is some misunderstanding between ourselves then we have to solve it by ourselves, but should not make is a matter of joke for outsiders by doing such thing. Such an act against our own leader is strictly not acceptable, it sends wrong signals to the rest of the world and to our next generation as well [coz of the perks ;)]. One has to protest against unjust, that is fine but not in this way though. We believe in “Sathyagraha” where peace does all for us, where non-violence is the only armor. Shoe firing is not our style, never ever. But yes, it may be Iraqi style. 😉
Gang's Wavelength 