Rahul Gandhi, Welcome to the Shoe and Ink Club

Rahul Gandhi had a shoe hurled at him in Sitapur. However, he is far from the first to receive such treatment.

(Photo: The Quint)

On Monday, a shoe was hurled at Rahul Gandhi by a man in Sitapur. The attack prompted the Congress vice president to blame the BJP and the RSS for the incident.

The incident took place during Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra when was in an open jeep.

The man who hurled the shoe at Rahul, Hariom Mishra, was immediately overpowered by the police and taken into custody for questioning even as the “missile” missed the Gandhi scion narrowly.

However, the attack puts Rahul in a select group that has been showered by a different kind of love.

Rahul, Welcome to the Shoe and Ink Club.

Arvind Kejriwal

On 9 April 2016, a shoe missile was aimed at Arvind Kejriwal by an activist of Aam Aadmi Party Sena — a breakaway faction of former workers of Aam Aadmi Party.

Kejriwal was in the midst of announcing round two of the odd-even scheme when he was greeted by a shoe thrown at him by Ved Prakash Sharma.

Sharma’s anger was because of the allegation that the odd-even scheme was part of a ‘CNG scam’ by Aam Aadmi Party.

Kejriwal however has been very popular with the shoe missile brigade. He was attacked by shoe-thrower back in 2009, when he was a leader of the India Against Corruption movement.

Manish Sisodia

Back from his trip to Finland, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was greeted with an ink attack outside the Lieutenant Governor’s office on the bright morning of 19 September 2016.

Sisodia was targeted by Brajesh Shukla as he was angry because of Sisodia’s absence even as Delhi reeled under a chikungunya and dengue epidemic.

He went abroad using our money while the people of Delhi are suffering.

Brajesh Shukla

However, Sisodia, unperturbed by the attack, said:

We are working on the improvements in health and education sectors but the opposition is working on ink only. Cheap politics by BJP and Congress.

Sudheendra Kulkarni

On 12 October 2015, Sudheendra Kulkarni had a dramatic start to his day. He was attacked by members of Shiv Sena who smeared Kulkarni with ink for being an organiser of the book launch event of former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai.

A group of 10 or 15 Shiv Sainiks mobbed me, they stopped my car, asked me to come out, they caught me, started abusing me, they said we had ordered you to stop the launch this evening, you didn’t listen to us, this is what we’ll do with you.

Shiv Sena’s threats were however ignored by Kulkarni who turned up for the launch of Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy with ink smeared over his face and clothes in an open statement of defiance.

P Chidambaram

On 7 April, 2009, then journalist Jarnail Singh threw a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press conference.

Singh, miffed at Chidambaram dodging his question on CBI’s clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 Sikh riots case, protested by hurling his shoe at him which did not hit the minister.

Singh — who serves as an Aam Aadmi Party MLA now — was detained but eventually released by the police.