When The Humble Shoe Turned Newsmaker

Bhubaneswar: While ‘egg attacks’ had so far been the fancy way of protest in Odisha, the resentment went one step further when shoes were hurled at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while he was campaigning for Bijepur byelection on Tuesday.

A new development in Odisha politics, throwing shoes at celebrities, especially politicians, has otherwise been reported on quite a few occasions in India and abroad.

OB brings you the list of most (un)popular shoe missile incidents of the past:

George W. Bush

Nobody hurls a shoe to a visiting foreign dignitary, and definitely not the President of United States of America. But in 2008, a broadcast journalist based in Iraq, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, did so, when he hurled shoes at the then USA President George W. Bush, during his press conference at Prime Minister’s Palace at Baghdad. Zaidi threw the first shoe and shouted “This is the farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog.” While hurling the second shoe, he shouted, “This is for widows and orphans, and all those killed in Iraq.” President Bush, however, was not hurt as he successfully ducked both times.

Naveen Jindal

In 2009, the Congress MP Naveen Jindal faced the wrath of a school teacher, who flung a shoe at the MP for allegedly not being able to fix a job for his son. The incident happened in his constituency Kurukshetra, where the industrialist was holding a meeting of the Congress party.

LK Advani

Like some others of his ilk, BJP veteran LK Advani too faced the ire of his own party men, who hurled a shoe at him when he was about to address a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh in April, 2009.

P Chidambaram

The infamous incident of 2009, when a journalist Jarnail Singh flung a shoe at the then Home Minister. The reporter was reportedly unhappy with Congress’ decision to field Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, for the Lok Sabha elections.

Manmohan Singh

The Prime Minister too wasn’t spared from shoe attack. While addressing the public during an election campaign, an engineering student hurled a shoe at the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had just started his speech. The shoe fell short of the dais.

Asif Ali Zardari

In 2010, a shoe was flung at the then President of Pakistan at Birmingham, England, during a political rally at the International Convention Centre.

Omar Abdullah

On occasion of Independence Day, a police officer hurled a shoe at the then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Arvind Kejriwal

The much-hyped odd-even scheme of the Aam Aadmi Party government in New Delhi turned odd for its Chief Minister when a youth named Ved Prakash, general secretary of Aam Aadmi Sena, threw a shoe at him. The incident took place during a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat in April, 2016, to announce roll-out of the second phase of the odd-even scheme.

Rahul Gandhi 

The Nehru-Gandhi family torchbearer, too, experienced the ignominy of shoe attack. During a road show at Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh elections in September, 2016, Rahul, who has one of the highest security covers, saw a shoe being thrown at him by one Hari Om Mishra, who claimed to be a journalist. The shoe-missile missed the target.

Tamannah Bhatia

Not just politicians, actress Tamannah Bhatia faced the ire of a fan, who hurled shoes at her, apparently for ‘not doing enough for Telugu films.’