Mrs Aandupaksa’s latest news bulletin to Mrs Anumaana is about a new set of regulations being drawn up for journalists, that may make it mandatory for scribes to shed their shoes before they enter the venue of any government press conference. She says the proposed new rules have come after lengthy discussion among ministers and government MPs who are concerned for their safety after hearing about an incident in Kashmir, where a shoe was hurled at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by a policeman sitting in the third row of the VIP enclosure during the Independence Day celebration in Srinagar.
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Chief Minister Abdullah was not the first Indian dignitary to have received this honour. He was preceded by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, senior party leader L.K. Advani and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to the briefing held at Temple Trees and attended by senior Defence officials. Of course it all started with former US president George Bush, who had not one but a pair of shoes flung at him by an Iraqi journo at a press conference held in Baghdad in 2008. Mr. Bush figured it was a Size 10. Mr Chidambaram was reportedly hit by a Size Eight Reebok. Mr Abdullah was the recipient of a slightly tatty looking Oxford dress shoe, going by the look of it in NDTV’s coverage of the incident (a replay of which the MPs watched with interest at the meeting).
At the discussion, one super-nationalistic young MP was of the opinion that if one of them got a Bata or DSI shoe hurled at them they should not object since it would help promote local industries. But there were few takers for this suggestion. Others said they did not care what the brand was as long as they received a pair of shoes like Bush, and not one. Even some brand preferences were mentioned at this stage. The discussion then became quite animated, with the pros and cons of different brand-name shoes being debated by the MPs. The meeting had to be brought back on track with difficulty by a senior minister.
The fact that most of the shoe-throwers MISSED their targets also featured in the discussion. Last year after an Aussie heckler missed hitting former Australian Prime Minister John Howard during a debate at Cambridge University, the president of the Cambridge Union had called it the weakest throw in the world. “I mean it shows why you lot lost the Ashes, if you don't mind me saying," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Apparently this pathetic shoe-thrower had even demanded his shoe back after the event.
So another new proposal is that nobody with a cricketing background should be considered for media accreditation in future.The Information Dept. is to be especially cautioned about those with bowling experience. It was unanimously agreed that NO SHOES WILL BE RETURNED when hurled (regardless of brand name).By all accounts Kashmir Chief Minister Abdullah, like most of the other dignitaries subjected to shoe-attacks, handled the episode with relative good grace. He said “hurling a shoe is better than hurling a stone,” and forgave his assailant. But Mrs Anumaana doubted whether the Sri Lankan politicians would be as magnanimous. She expressed some concern to Mrs Aandupaksa about an opinion poll that has been doing the rounds that asked respondents to tick off what they thought would be the likely fate of Lankan journalists who refused to take off their shoes at press conferences. It asked, will they:
a) Find a white van outside their door when they get home c) Be tied to a tree d) Disappear
Like many of the respondents Mrs Anumaana had answered “all of the above.” As for Sunil, he says he will never part with his Adidas for any politician in the world.
The writer is a senior freelance journalist. |
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