People! Do keep an extra pair of shoes handy from now on… (Else don’t regret if you don’t get it back).
And if not an extra pair, then make sure the pair you don for a high profile meeting is of extremely good variety!! No frayed edges etc!! … Your image on TV won’t look good …
Be prepared folks because you never know when an inner urge to take a shoe-shot will take over you and you and your shoe will become international celebrities.
As it is burning effigies is passé … especially if you are espousing a social cause.
Throw a shoe at a political bigwig to get extensive attention for the cause you hold dear! This is the latest international trend. The tactic is effective on both sides of the globe as well.
And this is one international trend India caught up with soon enough when Jarnail Singh took a ‘shoe shot’ day before. Our esteemed Home Minister has now joined the exalted ranks of Mr. George Bush, Mr. Wen Jiabao and the likes.
But jokes apart, even a cursory scrutiny will tell you that these incidents have a common thread running through them.
All episodes, including the ones against Mr. Bush, Mr. Jiabao and Mr. Chidambaram, have stemmed from the respective perpetrators’ belief in his respective social cause rather than from any desire for a personal vendetta. Notably each one of these shots has invariably been directed at a politician.
Does this, then, indicate to a form of simmering public ire against the state administrators that seeks to vent its frustration in the most insulting form possible during such close and otherwise secure interactions?
Are they carefully planned manoeuvers? Or are they simply spur of the moment actions – the Bush episode finding a widespread resonance across the world because of its simplicity of execution yet accompanied with unprecedented efficacy?
While I will leave the whys and wherefores questions to social scientists to ponder upon, conduct researches and give us answers, it is the impact of such incidents that is of interest to each one of us.
Each shoe thrown has brought forward a simmering social issue, whether it is the American action in Iraq, China’s role in Tibet or the government stand on 1984 riots closer at home. In each case the actual function went ahead unhindered. But each shoe thrown has reawakened a wide spectrum of media and public to a social cause that needs action, participation and debate. Large sections of media have re-examined and re-debated the underlying causes provoking each incidence. As a consequence each cause has gained a mindshare amongst the discerning public too. The reverberations and results from ensuing deliberations may even be long-term and long lasting in some cases. The shoes have made their marks if not exactly hitting the bull’s eye.
It will be interesting to wait and watch as to which other causes will get a dose of ‘shoe therapy’ – if nothing else to jolt the public out of lethargy and apathy towards meaningful debate and participation.
April 10, 2009 at 10:50 am
In Sanskrit, there is a saying that goes like – “Saam, Daam, Danda and Bheda” – used as tactics to get things done. Saam represents the practice of peaceful persuasion. Daam is when the first doesn’t work, you monetize the bargain. If this doesn’t work too, then Danda to be used as the reason of force and punishment. Bheda is the policy of discrimination. Though there are chapters where Bheda has been placed above Danda.
But, in the context where you go about Shoe Therapy, the right order is Saam, Daam, Danda and Bheda.
When your plight and fight are against the larger system (whether US activism or the Indian politicos’ inactivism), Saam is bound to get no mention or reckoning. Who gives a damn to a voice from the ground? Everyone is interested in the voices of high and mighty. Daam cannot work against the top-guys in politics and power. On any given day they’ll have both much in surplus than you, at least as long as they are in power. Their power re-defines their better control (and maneuvering prowess) over the state systems of punishment and force. All this is proven time and again by the top political leaders from across the parties. Whether it be a Lalu, Narsimha Rao, Rajiv Gandi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, or a Shibu Soren, no system ever got enough teeth to get hold of them. Ostensibly, if ever they were behind bars, it must have been their conscious and strategic decision to get themselves behind bars and only as long as they wished.
So, it is only Bheda (the policy of division & discrimination) that seems to be working in the given circumstances. At least, this Bheda works as a mass and public tool to uncover their skin in the public. As their detractor with some visible power and impact. Yet, harmless as it is due to its non use of any arms or bullet, the hurlers are also subject to attract public empathy. So, while a politician will attract the public sympathy regardless of his sins, in the case there is an attack by an anguished citizen; in the case of this shoe-therapy, the opposite is the case.
Your question “Why politicians” is also probably got its answer here. Politicians are an obvious answer in a democracy like ours. Root Cause of most of the evils. If not the root cause then certainly they have the power to chop off all other root causes. Provided there is a political will.
Till then, carry an extra pair of shoes along. I’m afraid, too much of use of the shoe therapy may also make it lose its impact. Let some people find some more therapies.
Jai Ho !!!
April 10, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Yet another leader gets a dose of Shoe Therapy today. This time it is Navin Jindal, a rather unlikely choice from among the crowd of other deserving politicians. But, the local public may know better. They must have some reasons.
However, I’ll quote from my last comment to this blog of yours – “I’m afraid, too much of use of the shoe therapy may also make it lose its impact. Let some people find some more therapies.”
Excessive use of one good tool may make it lose its teeth. Why do the majority of Indians act like herds of sheep? One shoe and then, too many. Bad, not for those facing it. But, for the trends it may set. Let’s keep discovering.