The pen is mightier than the sword. But, some journalists seem to be thinking that the shoe is more powerful than the pen.

Hurling shoes at politicians as an act of protest has off-late seems to have found notoriety after an Iraqi journalist, Mumtazar al-Zaidi, hurled his shoes at the then US President George Bush in December last year. A German student Martin Jahnke threw a shoe at vising Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University in February this year. Another Journalist Jarnail Singh employed with Dainik Jagran flung a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram at a press conference in New Delhi in April. Recently, there was a similar incident took place in Kurukshetra. This time it was retired school principal hurled a shoe at Parliament contesting candidate Navin Jindal, during a public meeting. In another incident just a couple of days back a political worker hurled a chappal at LK Advani. Few days back, an attempt was made to the PM. Fortunately, almost in all these incidents the footwears didn’t hit the target.

Throwing shoes at leaders and politicians seems to have become the easiest way of registering a protest. These incidents, which have happened in quick succession, have raised many eyebrows. From the traditional trend of mudslinging, now shoe slinging as a new trend is increasingly followed. This has certainly caused concern to many. The National Security Guard (NSG) has already expressed its concern over the security of P Chidambaram. Now it is a cause of great concern for Press Meets organizers too. It is for sure these incidents will not stop there. There is no guarantee that such incidents won’t reoccur in future. Who is going to the be next victim. If for any reasons shoe-flingings are repeated, professionals involved in organizing such meetings or press meets will have a tough time to cope up with them.

Shoes flinging by the Nizam of Hyderabad

Historically we have couple of unpleasant incidents of footwear flinging in protest. One such incident was of the Nizam of Hyderabad and Madan Mohan Malviya, the founder of The Banaras Hindu University, in North India. The story goes like this: While Malviya was trying to build the university, he had to overcome many difficulties and barriers. There was a fund crisis. But he did not get disheartened and went from town to town, met many rich men and traders to collect donations. Then he went to the Nizam of Hyderabad to request him funds.

But the Nizam was furious, ‘How dare you to come to me for funds, that too for a Hindu University?’ he supposedly roared with anger and took off his footwear and flung them at Malviya.

Malviya picked up the footwear and left silently. He went directly to the market place and began to auction the footwear. As it was the Nizam’s footwear, many bidders came up. When the Nizam heard of this, he became uneasy. He thought it would be an insult if his footwear were to be bought by someone for a pittance.

So he sent one of his attendants with the instruction, ‘Buy that footwear no matter what the bidding price be!’  Malviya managed to sell the Nizam his own footwear for a huge amount of money and finally used that money to build the university (biggest university still in the whole Asia today).

Measures to protect VIPs against shoe flingers

Coming to our times, following these incidents, I am sure the police are taking adequate precautions. But, what can the police also do to stop these incidents. Some politicians maintained when we organize any political meetings we must ensure that the political leader is at least 20 to 25 feet away from crowd. They didn’t even rule out wire mesh between the speaker and the public to avoid any embarrassment.

But, how can this be address during press conferences. The incident has started giving PR people nightmarish jitters. There is a lot of interesting talk circulating around in the PR industry and people are wondering how one can avoid an embarrassment in the future. This topic seems to be bothering a lot of public relations professionals, consultants, and agencies, who regularly organize press conferences.

Hurling shoes hurts. While George Bush has taken it in his stride, Chidambaram was very uneasy, but magnanimous enough to forgive the journalist. But, how can they be stopped in future.

The best thing to address this issue is to probably enter the venue bare-feet (see a humorous take). This is quite a common practice in our culture to leave footwear before entering temples, homes and some religious and holy place, according to D. Anil Kumar, Corporate Communications professional working with a Hyderabad infrastructure company. But is that workable? It is a million dollar question, which time only will answer. But, he hastened to add that it is not practically possible in every case, but at least in a few special cases where there is the sensitivity of the subject such as LTTE or where a speaker is of controversial in nature, say Naredra Modi, Praveen Thogadia, and other leaders of communal in nature, he added.

Even if media personnel are requested to leave their footwear before they enter into conference hall still that is not fool proof as some more items such as paper balls, ink or water is available to throw. But, these things won’t hurt as much as a shoe.

Where there is the sensitivity of the subject involved, one needs to think twice to be careful about such press conferences. Take for instance the press briefings of Jaya Lalitha, Karunanidhi, etc. They fall in such nature. But, steps taken to stop such incidents may not be still foolproof. I think we need to live with them as it is, opined Anil.

Let us see what other options (hypothetically speaking) are available to Press Conference organizers.

1. Hiring Bouncers for the press meets

2. Opting for video-conferencing instead of face-to-face meets.

3. Having bullet-proof glass panes installed between the client and the media.

4. Have the client speak from specially erected booths or cabins or caging themselves in them at the press meets.

5. Chain the audience to their chairs.

None of the above options seem practical. Except in case of VVIPs and other dignitaries like the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Governors and other heads of states and some high profile Ministers, caging them in a specially erected booths and addressing Press Briefings may not be possible.

Sudhanshu, another Corporate Communications professional working with a local corporate house said we need not worry much about these incidents. They are just a few stray cases. Don’t expect them to be repeated. Let us not give much attention to it, he said.

How does the hotel industry, particularly five star hotels, where normally press conferences are held, view this? When asked a banquet professional of a star hotel who wanted to be anonymous said it is the matter of organizer and their invitees. There is nothing much a hotel can get involved. And I don’t think any hotel can claim that they can do something to stop such incidents. Banquet arrangements, seatings are done as per the client’s requirement. Even if we know of threat perception(read as shoe flinging) of a particular individual, there is hardly any thing that we can do to stop it, he explained.

Is throwing shoes ok?

Hurling shoes is better than bullets and bombs. That is the only way available to common citizens. But, unfortunately when journalists are concerned, it tantamounts to professional misconduct. Journalists are watchdogs of the society. They are not supposed to take sides. Why was Jarnail Singh not booked for his shoe attack on the minister? Why didn’t his employer Dainik Jagran own responsibility for his professional misconduct as the journalist in case has gone there as its representative. Jarnail Singh himself disapproves the means adopted by him. Look at the way similar incidents were treated by other countries. The Iraqi court sentenced Al-Zaidi who threw shoes at Bush to three years’ imprisonment (sentence is now reduced to one year) and the offender is now serving his jail term.

‘Journalists can not get involved emotionally in their profession. Journalists who go out to cover official assignments and press conferences should maintain the decorum(of press conferences) as they have greater responsibility. They cannot be biased. These repeated episodes of throwing shoes may impinge on the media’s freedom to cover events’, said Vijay Rao, a journalist. Many editors including K.S. Sachidananda Murthy of the Editors Guild had already condemned the incident and advised that journalists must practise restraint over their emotions.

A German student Martin Jahnke who threw a shoe at visiting Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University in February this year is facing prosecution for a public order offence in a British court. Those countries didn’t treat the insults heaped on foreign heads of states lightly and allowed the laws of the land to take their course, even if the offenders had a just cause to highlight. Offenders should not go unchecked, even if you are sympathetic to their cause and even if the offender is the journalist. In case of Jarnail Singh, the government looks like it could not afford to antagonize the media, especially when the elections are around the corner. But, what about its implications in future. This would send wrong signals. No one should be spared for public insult. Doesn’t this incident leave bad image of the press in public mind. The media image in public is gradually eroding and incidents like these spoil the total reputation.

Shoe throwing culture must be stopped. The act, a replay of Iraqi journalist’s, if goes unchecked, it would soon become the most powerful and abused tool of protest. Enormous publicity and huge support from like minded people, may encourage more to resolve such acts. Already, these acts have had lot of media and public attention. But, interestingly and unfortunately, we still dont have any security against these simple shoes.

Popularity: 15% [?]