Shoe-ting into Fame

                                   
When the Iraqi reporter hurled his footwear at George Bush, little did he know he is going to be an icon; a trend-setter of a new language which communicates faster than words from mouth. It makes me remember of the scene from “The legend of Bhagat Singh”, of Bhagat Singh throwing two bombs in a running session of parliament, meant not to hurt anybody but to wake up the sleeping souls of revolutionaries as well as the administration. Suddenly the bombs, the pamphlets have got redefined. 

Following the trend, Jarnali Singh, a Punjabi reporter made his shoe do the talking to PC (P Chidambaram). His protest was against the rash behavior of government to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims; against the mum of the government against Tytler and Sajjan Kumar: the chief two suspects. Soon after the incident, the issue gained intensity like a wild fire, leading to voices raised all around. Congress had to save its back at least at this gruesome time of elections, the last thing that it could afford was to let the red blood stains show off over its white wardrobe. Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were soon barred from contesting for the elections. 

And to add to this shoe-ting fame game, is the name of Raj Pal, a retired school teacher from Haryana who threw his shoes at Jindal, the industrialist cum Congress MP from this constituency. Although his intentions have not been disclosed yet, his heroic has already served a top story in news channels. 

While these men dared to seek this bizarre but provoking way to make their opinion listened to, they have unknowingly written a few new lessons to learn from. 

In this Gandhinian nation of India, where people idolize methods of truth and non-violence in tackling evil deeds, it has to find some “Bhagat Singh”s too, who could wake the beleaguered souls of politicians from the stance they are in; who think this country could never get corruption-free, who feel this nation can never step out of the slump of communalism and inequality. We have to be a part of this system if we want to improve it. Democracy is like a swimming pool and we citizens have to jump into the water to remove the dirt out of it. 

Nevertheless this new weapon of shoe-ting can be perceived as the next best way to get noticed than posing nude in front of press, pretending protests against animals, I would take this as the new avatar of revolt that people have sorted out against the very fundamental necessities every human is predestined for: Truth, Independence and justice. 

Jai Hind
Biru

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