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Monday, Apr 27, 2009
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Shoe hurled at Prime Minister in Ahmedabad

Manas Dasgupta

Youth says he did it for the sake of publicity; Congress leaders contradict his claim; BJP denies links with him

Photo: PTI

INCIDENT IN AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is garlanded at an election rally in Ahmedabad on Sunday. (Right) An engineering student identified as Hitesh Chauhan, who threw a shoe at Dr. Singh, being overpowered by a security personnel. The shoe landed in the security zone near the dais. He was pardoned by the Prime Minister.

AHMEDABAD: A youth hurled a shoe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a public meeting here on Sunday .

Even as Dr. Singh was addressing the gathering, a youth, who later identified himself as Hitesh Chauhan, stood up and flung a shoe towards the dais. It hit on the barricade and fell a few metres inside the “D” security zone, the 50 odd metre gap between the dais and the audience barricade.

Security personnel pounced on the youth, pulled him up above the barricade and took him to the Ellisbridge Police Station. On interrogation, he said he was 21, a resident of Bapunagar here and a computer engineering student in the government engineering college in Gandhinagar. His father runs a stationery shop in Bapunagar.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch Abhay Chudasma, the youth said he did it “only for the sake of publicity.” He neither had any political affiliations nor belonged to any recession-hit family. He also had no grievances against any particular party or leader. Seeing a string of shoe-throwing incidents on television, he planned to perform such an act and came to the venue specifically for that purpose.

Congress leaders, however, contradicted his claim of “innocence.” Pradesh Congress spokesman and member of the Gujarat University Syndicate Manish Doshi claimed that Chauhan was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, students’ wing of the BJP. He contested an election in the university Senate as a candidate of the ABVP.

State Congress president Siddhartha Patel said Chauhan was an active worker of the ABVP and his action only reflected the BJP’s growing desperation over the outcome of the parliamentary elections.

The BJP, however, denied that Chauhan had any links with it. Party spokesman Yamal Vyas condemned the incident and demanded action to stop repetition of such incidents. Cabinet spokesman and Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said the action reflected the “mental perversions” of the thrower. The BJP strongly condemned any such action.

Photo: PTI

A security man carries the shoe that was hurled at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an election meeting in Ahmedabad on Sunday. —

Though a public meeting, it was meant for only a restricted audience on security grounds. Only a few thousand invited guests of the Congress leaders were allowed inside the covered area but no entry passes were demanded at the gates. Chauhan came to the venue well in advance to occupy a chair on the front row of the audience.

People sitting next to him later said Chauhan was heard murmuring that “leaders come and go and give speeches but nothing happens to the masses.” As he was “advised” to keep quiet, the boy suddenly stood up, shouted “stop telling lies” and flung a shoe towards the dais.

Dr Singh, who was reading out his written speech, did not seem to notice the incident but looked up only once when a commotion began at the security staff escorting the youth and resumed his address totally unruffled.

But before he left for Surat, where he was due to address another public meeting, Dr. Singh told leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil to convey to the Ahmedabad police that he bore no ill-will against the youth and that no police case be filed against him. The Congress, accordingly, informed the police. Till late in the evening, the police, however, did not release the youth.

Following the incident, security for Dr. Singh was further tightened at his Surat meeting.

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