Musings of 1084

It’s just Three months since Zaidi, and we see another shoe hurled at a High Profile politician except the difference in the place and the issue. Yesterday I was watching the umpteen times repeated telecast of the day’s Breaking News. Jarnail Singh turned out the otherwise dull, official Afternoon press meet to a burning sensation. He hurled the shoe muttering “In Protest” towards the dais of the Minister. Note. It could have been very easy for him to hurl it at the face of Chidambaram if he had intended to. But the Forty year old Jarnail Singh, who has been a respected journalist for the past 15 years, probably decided to understate. So he was merely throwing it towards the dais but clearly away from the Minister. He was protesting the home Minister’s justification of the CBI giving clean chit to Jagdish Tytler,  so as to enable Tytler to get a party ticket in the forthcoming elections .

But you should have watched the excitement of Barkha Dutt even after Jarnail Singh expressing his regret on air and the ‘gentle soul’ who faced the shoe decided to forgive him. Who did the ‘crime?’ Which one is the Crime, Action or Reaction? Who can forgive whom and for what? Nobody questions But Just preach that one should not go beyond the limits and certainly not a Journalist. Even Chidambaram says Jarnail did it in a fit of emotion. Every one question the Sardar’s Anger. May be he cannot get as angry as Congressmen.

Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.

The quizzical thing was, even Balbir Punj of BJP was part of the discussion giving lectures on how Journalists should behave. Ashwini Kumar of Congress was maintaining ‘restraint’ like his minister, as we all know the time is such. It’s better to control the damage than to make it worse by saying something, that too, at this crucial election hour. Every one was engaged in a hollow discussion on the role of Journalist in Democracy, How-a- Journalist-should-not-become- an-activist and how crossing the limits of the roles is dangerous etc., etc.,

When the patience of the prolonged wait breaks you cannot expect or contain the reaction within the set and safe limits. The only true voice was of Harinder Baweja, Tehelka’s Editor, who put it succinctly.

Jarnail Singh certainly didn’t act like a Journalist but he did what every sikh wants to do except that others don’t have access to high profile leaders. He is a symbol of the anguish and pain suffered by the sikh society which is waiting for justice for the past 25 years. I may not wonder if some day someone else hurls a shoe at Narendra Modi.

“Please take him away, gently, gently, gently, doesn’t matter, please settle down, please settle down,” were the words of Chidambaram following the commotion at the press conference. Sounds metaphoric, right? Exactly like the strategy of Congress on the 1984 genocide… taking away the memory of the genocide gently,gently,gently and settling down the dust, step by step for the past 25 years.

I whole-heartedly support what Jarnail did, but not the half-heartedness with which he did and regretted of what he did in the aftermath, while maintaining the issue remains. The Shoe should have hit the face which could have conveyed better what he wanted to say as a whole.

P.S: Reuters says, Throwing a shoe at someone is considered an insult in India. I remember reading the same thing when happened in Iraq too. Want to know in which part of the world throwing a shoe at someone is not an insult?

Thanks to Countercurrents for republishing.

Well, the whole world knows Muntazer al Zaidi hurling shoes at Respected US president George W. Bush, the outgoing president of the mighty US empire, the savior of the world, the greatest exporter of democracy. if you missed it, watch the video above. Zaidi hurled the shoes shouting, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog!This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” Zaidi was working a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

At last, George Bush won his argument. He has indeed found the Weapons of Mass Destruction(WMD), after years and years of search.ie., a pair of shoes. It was not visible for the eyes of UN Monitoring group or for the international media but was waiting for four long years in the feets of Zaidi. May we all fight for Bush to get him the Nobel Prize this year for the discovery for which he took so much pain in his ass for years.

But see the reaction of this ungrateful world…Television news stations throughout Iraq repeatedly showed footage of the incident, and newspapers carried headline stories. In Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City, supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for protests against Bush and demanded the release of the Zaidi.

But wait, what we hear next? The Model 271 shoes that were hurled, now better known as “The Bush Shoe” has created a sensation in the market.“We’ve been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy. We’ve even hired an agency to look at television advertising,” says Ramazan Baydan, the owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company which produced the model. Baydan has recruited an additional 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271, more than four times the shoe’s normal annual sale, following an outpouring of support for Zaidi’s act, ‘The Guardian’ reported.

Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said. Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000. A British firm is said to have offered to serve as European distributor for the shoes, which have been on the market since 1999 and sell at around 28 pounds in Turkey. A sharp rise in orders has been recorded in Syria, Egypt and Iran, where the shoemaker ’s federation has offered to provide Zaidi and family with a lifetime’s supply of shoes. And, to meet the mood of the marketplace, Baydan is planning to rename the model “Bush Shoe” or “Bye-Bye Bush”.

And that’s not all. Mohamed Makhafa, a retired school teacher from Saudi Arabia has something to offer on his part. Heoffered to pay USD 10 million for the pair of shoes.“It is more precious than all my property. I will bequeath it to my children and display it in a museum and call it the Medal of Freedom,” Makhafa told AlArabiya.net. uh..uh..

The face blackened authorities came up with an apology letter from Zaidi. Uday al-Zeid, Brother of Muntazer al Zaidi bombarded the veracity of the letter. He told The Associated Press that the letter was written against his brother’s will because of torture during detention that included being doused with cold water while naked. “He told me that he has no regret because of what he done and said that he would do it again if time went back,” Uday said by telephone. He had visited Muntazer in jail a day before and saw more-severe injuries, including a missing tooth and burns on his ears made by cigarettes.

Well, a cool-headed Bush had only this much to say showing his teeth.“It was a size 10. So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?” His wife, Laura Bush, has much humor sense than him. she said she wasn’t amused at the incident. “So it is — as bad as the incident is, in my view, it is a sign that Iraqis feel a lot freer to express themselves,” she said. Commentators to her remarks are not so polite. Like one Mr. Joe Jackson, who says, “Who cares what this woman has to say anyway. Paris Hilton makes more sense.” Just go through other comments, thank god, Laura won’t be reading them.

Indians do not lag behind. After all our honourable prime minister Dr.Manmohan Singh during his visit to US declared “Indians love Bush”. Abdul Rahman of Chennai couldn’t find Bush in person to express his love and had to express it to the embassy building. He was arrested for throwing his pair of shoes at US embassy at Chennai. Weapons of Mass Destruction spreading from Baghdad to Chennai!! God Save US! Dr.Rudhran also expressed his love. Comrades of People’s Art and Literary Association, Tamilnadu expressed their love by distributing sweets to public!!

Well,
Happy New Year America!