08 April,2009 05:20 PM IST | | Prawesh Lama, Surender Sharma
Says the journalist who hurled a shoe at P Chidambaram. Police may keep the size 9 Reebok trainer as evidence. He shares his anger with MiD DAY
As Union Home Minister P Chidambaram joined former US President George W Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Jarnail Singh the man responsible for the suave economist achieving the featu00a0denied that Bushshooeing was his inspiration.
Singh a senior correspondent with a Hindi dailyu00a0is still missing the shoe that he had hurled at the Home Minister at a press conference on Tuesday.
He spoke to MiD DAY about the shoe, his anger and regret.
Excerpts from an exclusive chat
Since no case was registered against you, have you got your shoe back?
I do not know where my shoe is. I was directly taken to the police station. Someone must have taken the shoe. I asked my friends about it but they did not have any idea.
What kind of shoe was it?
(Laughs) It was a Reebok sports shoe, which I had brought from a shop in the Capital.
The shoe has become very famous, what was the size of that shoe?
(Laughs).. It was number 9.
The shoes thrown in some of the recent incidents have fetched a lot of money in auctions. Do you also plan to auction yours?
No, I will not be auctioning my shoe. Why would I do it? I don't want to make money out of the issue. It was a protest, which happened in the heat of the moment.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Rumours are doing the rounds that you are one of the victims of the anti-Sikh riots.
No, this is totally false. Neither me nor my relatives were victims of the riots.
Why did you take this extreme step to protest?
It was not pre-planned. I got furious at the response of the Home Minister and everything happened in the heat of the moment.
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Were you inspired by the recent shoe throwing incident in Iraq?
No. What happened in other countries never came to my mind.
u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
One of your college friends, currently a senior government official in Gorakhpur, told us that during your interactions with your friends you talked about the plight of the victims of the 1984 riots. Is it true that you were disturbed ever since?
u00a0No, this is not true. Of course I felt bad for them but remaining disturbed is totally false.u00a0 I am not an angry man. I have never vent my anger but on Tuesday I lost it.u00a0
Do you regret your action?
Yes, I do. It should not have happened. As a journalist what I did was wrong.u00a0
Have you received threats after the incident?
I have not received any threats. I have not done anything wrong or hurt anybody.
| Proud netas |
| Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh to Jarnail Singh for his "courageous" act. The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has also hailed Singh. "We are proud of him. He has not committed any crime. He did it for his community," said Bhupinder Singh Anand, an SGPC member. The SGPC had also announced a legal aid of Rs 2 lakh if charges were brought against the journalist. However, as the Congress did not lodge any formal complaint, the aid was withdrawn. |
| Barefoot journo |
| After he hurled the shoe at P Chidambaram, Jarnail Singh was taken out of the press conference by Congress workers and handed over to the police. The cops took him to the Tughlak Road police station barefoot. He was grilled by Delhi police special cell officials and IB men for over 45 minutes. The journo maintained that he did not belong to any political front and "whatever happened occurred in the heat of the moment." He did not attend his office on Tuesday. However, he later briefed the media about the whole incident. |
