Shoe-throwing fever catches on!

Ever since the Iraqi journalist took a snipe at the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />US president George Bush, shoe-throwing fever is catching on all over the world as a medium of registering protest. The second person to get a taste of shoe-throwing protest was the Chinese premier when he visited the United States of America.  

 

The Indian home minister, P. Chidambaram, was the next to be at the receiving end.  Then an Indian legislator, Navin Jindal,  became the victim of a teacher’s wrath.  As if that was not enough, the opposition leader L.K. Advani got an unceremonious offering of two sandals from one of his party workers!

 

Ironically, shoe-throwing is now being seen as one of the most effective ways of lodging a protest. The latest development in this series of events is not one of shoe-throwing!  Now, take a look at this…

 

The residents of a village near Kanpur in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have carried the shoe-throwing fever to a new high!  They have put up an effigy of a politician clad in white kurta and pyjama and everybody in the village is now busy doing a target practice on the effigy with their footwear! 

 

Why?  Well, the village has seen nothing by way of development for decades and the villagers are blaming insensitive politicians who turn up only before the elections for that. So, whoever happens to be the first politician to visit the village this time is going face their wrath!  The villagers don’t want the shoes they throw at the politician to miss the target.  They want their shoes to land on the politician’s face.  So, they are taking no chances!

 

They say not a single shoe thrown till now has found its mark.  So, their target practice is at aimed at ensuring that the shoes land right on target!