Another politician has to duck thrown shoe
A leading Indian politician was forced to duck a shoe flung at him during a press conference in New Delhi today in a virtual repeat of President George Bush’s Iraqi incident.
The shoe narrowly missed Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, who asked security officials to remove the journalist who threw it.
Mr Chidambaram was speaking on terror and Congress Party policies at the country’s ruling party headquarters when he made a reference to the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 which left thousands dead.
A journalist from a Hindi daily asked him a question about the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) clearing a party veteran accused of inciting and leading mobs against the Sikh community in 1984.
Mr Chidambaram dismissed the claim that the CBI was under pressure from the government. “First of all let me make it clear that the CBI is not under (the control of) the Home Ministry. To my knowledge, neither the Home Ministry nor any ministry of the government had put any pressure on the CBI,” he said.
When veteran journalist Jarnail Singh persisted with questions, Mr Chidambaram said: “No arguments”, and Mr Singh took off his shoe and hurled it at the minister.
He was escorted away by security officials and later released. Mr Chidambaram continued taking questions.
“Let not the action of one emotional person hijack the entire press conference,” he said. “I have answered his questions to the best of my ability.”
Mr Singh said that he would not apologise, although the manner of his protest might have been wrong.
“My manner of protest might have been wrong, but I did not intend to hurt anyone. The issue called for it,” he said.
“How can he (Mr Chidambaram) be happy when one community faces injustice? They were stopping me from talking,” Mr Singh added.
The riots in 1984 left more than 3,000 dead, most of whom were Sikhs. It was the result of a backlash after former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her.
Last December an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at former US president George Bush. Muntadar al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years in jail on March 12.
