Sole of the matter

George W Bush, P Chidambaram, Naveen Jindal, L K Advani and Manmohan Singh. The one thing that binds all these people is a shoe — hurled at them!
A bloke named Hitesh Chauhan, obviously digruntled with the state of affairs in the country, threw a shoe at PM Manmohan Singh today afternoon when the PM was addressing a rally in Ahmedabad.
During the last few days there have been a number of incidents of shoe-throwing in differrent parts of the country. On April 7, an accredited journalist in New Delhi had expressed his protest over CBI giving clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in anti-Sikh riots of 1984, by hurling a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Congress leader Naveen Jindal also became a victim of a similar incident when an agitated school teacher hurled a shoe towards him during a rally. In another such incident, a party member hurled his wooden footwear at Bharatiya Janata Party's primeministerial candidate L K Advani during a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Katni town.
Looks like the shoe has suddenly become mightier than the sword and of course, the pen. But yeah, it's at least better than slashing someone's throat with a sword or spraying them with bullets.
But then, I wonder, why do these shoe-throwers always miss their target? Arre bhai, ek toh joota nishaane pe lagna chahiye na? And all this keeps happening when the nation is electing its representatives. I suspect it's a gimmick to attract attention. After all, even bad publicity is exactly that — publicity.
But I must admit, charismatic BJP leader Narendra Modi is a smart guy. During one of his rallies, he ensured that his podium was secured with nets (see pic), to prevent a wayward shoe or chappal coming his way. Guess he didn't realise that his poll campaign could get extra funds if the footwear coming his way is sold off to a kabadiwallah!