Shoe Hurling: Not as petty as it sounds

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi Journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush at a press conference in December last, would indeed be very proud if he ever discovers the sort of impact his courageous (although spontaneous) act has had on the Indian polity in particular and the Indian society in general.

Drawing inspiration from Mr. Zaidi, sections among the Indian populace have successfully weaponised the commonly available piece of footwear. The most well-known of such groups (the members of which are considered by some to be radical social vigilantes), has taken upon itself, the extremely daunting task (especially in the Indian context) of publicly humiliating every such person who is worth humiliating publicly, and who fully deserves to be so humiliated.

The incidents of shoe throwing have steadily increased in frequency as well as ambition (especially over the past few months) and the Indian media’s responsible coverage has further contributed to justifiably terrorizing those sections of the Indian society who may expect to find themselves at the receiving end of such attacks. This has led to the target section exercising such levels of caution as may be considered to be bordering on paranoia which has unintentionally resulted in providing quite a bit of comic relief to the people of this country.

P. Chidambaram (Cabinet Minister for Home Affairs), L.K. Advaini (Leader of the Opposition)and Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister of India) are just some of the eminent personalities who have recently had shoes thrown at them (although, I must concede that not all of these acts of shoe throwing were justified). In fact, on the 13th of April, the Coimbatore police had compelled Shri. Advani’s supporters to remove their footwear before allowing them to enter the Airport to greet him, just so the supporters/party workers didn’t try anything ‘adventurous’
(http://news.in.msn.com/national/indiaelections2009/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2928649). And this was a mere three days before the actual fiasco (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37081§ionid=90&secid=0). Needless to say, their Madhya Pradesh counterparts were not as prudent.

However, these are merely cases which have come to light as they involved famous and influential individuals. Shoe throwing has become a much more common phenomenon which brings us to the second category of individuals, who simply need a flimsy excuse to remove their shoes and fling them at another person. My personal experiences which solely relate to individuals who may be included in this group, have not been detailed by me as they may sound extremely far fetched. None the less, the point on which I want to lay emphasis is that this group does in fact exist.

My Take:

Although, Prima Facie, the incidents of shoe throwing seem comical and trivial, this trend has gathered strong significance in the present day Indian scenario and also underscores the growing dissatisfaction among the people of India (mainly the intelligentsia) with respect to continued political and administrative complacency and abuse. Personally, I wholeheartedly support the first group of individuals. A responsible citizen needs an active/radical medium of expressing his justified frustration against the Government and related authorities. An expression, which, without being lethal or physically harmful, would be capable of causing such amounts of psychological discomfort so as to compel such a Government/authority/politician to at least make an honest attempt at judicially exercising the power that has been so given to them. In the absence of such an effective mechanism, the supposed rulers would deliberately ignore the fact that they are merely elected representatives and have absolutely no right to misuse their authority towards the end of exploiting the nation, its diversity and its people for their own personal gain.

Immediately post independence and until the early 90s, this medium of expression was the Indian Press. But in today’s context, when the Indian Media has become largely commercial, has lost quite a bit of its credibility and is usually ignored, it is but natural for concerned Indians to yearn for an alternative and more drastic mechanism of expressing themselves.

Mr. Zaidi’s act was undoubtedly the strongest and the most effective insult not only with respect to a widely hated political leader, but also against the carnivorous economic/foreign policies as well as the adamant, dominant and indifferent attitude of the United States. He, along with his courage and his shoes, achieved that which even a bullet would have failed to accomplish. No person, irrespective of his/her race, nationality or religion would consider Mr. Zaidi’s actions to be dishonourable (unless of course such person happens to be a US republican, a Neo-Nazi, a Fascist, has political leanings similar to the previously mentioned ideologies or is simply unreasonable). It is because this approach is considered honourable and effective, that it is steadily being adopted as an alternative mechanism in India and its use is becoming all the more frequent.

However, it cannot be denied that this expression is not completely free from misuse. An act of shoe throwing has the intended effect only as long as it’s honourable i.e. it is done for the urgent redressal of a genuine set of public grievances which have no other reasonable alternate remedy. The moment it ceases to be honourable, it ceases to be effective. Widespread, unnecessary, wrongly motivated or casual use of this act would automatically deride its influence. For that reason it is important to avoid resorting to this act as a means of political vendetta, personal revenge or general amusement. Nevertheless, the act of shoe throwing is liable to be widely misused at all levels in the months to come and therefore this trend may well be temporary, as more moderate-but-equally effective mechanisms will also gradually evolve. Moreover, it would also amount to committing the offense of assault against the who happens to be the victim of such an attack (although all victims so far have been very magnanimous by refraining from pressing charges against their attackers probably due to fear of a consequent public relations disaster). But, as long as it lasts, and is responsibly used the incidents of shoe throwing will not only ensure greater transparency and diligence on part of the administration but also promote careful responsibility on part of the Media by enabling it to determine relevant social issues and bringing the same to the forefront.