Vote to Boot

The general elections in India are fast approaching and they will decide which MPs get booted out of the parliament, in fact the process may have already begun with two of our MPs already getting "the boot" last week. While this form of protest seems to be fast gaining popularity since the attack on President Bush during his Iraq visit, the origin of "shoeing" away one's opponents may be traced back to 18th century France.

It is believed that during the Industrial Revolution in France workers employed at power looms used to express their dissatisfaction with work by throwing their wooden shoes called sabots at their machinery - this used to lead to a temporary disruption of work or in the worst case, to the failure of the machinery. This act of using sabots to cause a deliberate disruption in a system came to be known as sabotage. So in a way Mr. Jarnail Singh and Mr. Rajmal Singh Saharan have to some extent sabotaged the efforts of Mr. P Chidambaram and Mr. Naveen Jindal in the run up to the elections. While Mr. Chidambaram handled the entire incident rather gracefully, the flying footwear did lead to a brief unrest in Mr. Jindal's meeting. It is interesting to note that both Mr. Jindal and Mr. Chidambaram are MPs from Congress which dates back to as far as 1885 and saw its first split in the 1907 Surat session. During the Surat session, the Congress split into moderates and the extremists and one of the first victims of the extremists was Sir Pherozshah Mehta who found himself sitting in the trajectory of an airborne footwear. Sir Mehta however was not the sole target of the projectile as it had apparently brushed Mr Surendranath Banerjee as well.

It would seem that people's ability to guide the shoes towards their intended victims has grossly deteriorated since 1907, which I feel is a blessing. For, though this form of protest is rampant in most parts of India and the recent attacks on our political leader has only popularized it further; this sort of vigilantism is unacceptable and laws should be made to deter individuals from using this form of protest as a popular means of venting out their frustration. At the same time having laws to prevent a common citizen from throwing objects at other citizens and politicians will smell of hypocrisy if we continue to see scenes of flying mikes and chairs and bleeding ministers in our parliament and state assemblies. Though as a democracy we enjoy the freedom of expression, one also needs to realize that flinging a shoe at someone will not solve our problems and that is the reason there are elections every five years - to give us the opportunity to express our unhappiness with the incumbent and elect someone who will deliver. In the end the ballot is mightier than the sneaker.