Chidambaram in a spot

A shoe was hurled at the Union Home Minister, P.Chidambaram by a Sikh journalist, while he was addressing a press conference at the AICC office which missed the Minister by a whisker. The Sikh journalist asked a question on CBI’s role in giving a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler who was accused of causing riot against the Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.Not satisfied with the Minister’s reply, Jarnail Singh, the journalist hurled a shoe at the Minister. Unruffled, the Minister continued with the press conference and also did not press charges against the culprit. Shoe hurling at VVIPs has become a convenient tool of protest adopted world wide after the Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al Zaidi,who became a hero of the Arab world after he hurled his pair of shoes at President George Bush, while he was addressing a farewell press conference in Baghdad. Muntadhar has now been sentenced to three years in jail by a Iraqi court but for the people of the Arab world he was their hero.Last week the Chinese Prime Minister,Wen Zia Bao had the same experience while addressing the students in Cambridge University. A German student hurled shoe at the Chinese Prime Minister. The same spectacle was witnessed in the Supreme Court when lady teachers of a private school hurled shoes at the sitting Supreme Court Judges. The shoe hurled at Chidambaram might have missed the target but it had jolted the Congress party about the wisdom of offering a ticket to Jagdish Tytler against vehement opposition of the Sikh Community.

The Sikh riot that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her own Sikh guards left a deep scar in the minds of the Sikhs against the Congress party in Delhi because names of Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler,Sajjan Kumar were intimately mixed up with the riot. The latest CBI report giving a clean chit to Tytler was questioned not only by the Sikh community but by eminent lawyers. The report would be considered by the court and appropriate decision taken. But the Congress party could have avoided this embarrassing situation by not giving tickets to these tainted leaders till the court delivers its verdict. Congress, a secular party must not protect its leaders adopting a violent divisive policy like the BJP whose icon has now become Varun Gandhi who spewed venom against the Muslim community. Both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar should not be allowed to contest on Congress tickets to send a message to all that Congress values secularism by words and deeds. ASSAM TRIBUNE