# Journalist Throws Shoe At Indian Official



## Archived_Member16 (Apr 7, 2009)

APRIL 7, 2009, 8:01 A.M.  ET
 *Journalist Throws Shoe at Indian Official  *




*Associated Press*

*NEW DELHI --* An angry journalist threw a shoe at India's  top security official after a confrontational exchange during a press conference  over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that left thousands dead.


The shoe missed Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram,  who continued taking questions Tuesday as officials escorted the journalist  away.


He was later taken into police custody, but it was not  immediately clear whether he would face charges, said police spokesman Rajan  Bhagat.


Local television channels identified the journalist as  Jarnail Singh, a veteran reporter with one of India's largest newspapers, the  Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.






_A Sikh journalist throws his shoe  at India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram during a news conference in New  Delhi in this video frame grab from Ani TV

_

Before throwing the shoe, Mr. Singh asked Mr. Chidambaram  several questions about the Central Bureau of Investigation's findings last week  that cleared a senior Congress party leader, Jagdish Tytler, from any  involvement in the ****** riots that left 3,000 dead.


Mr. Chidambaram said the CBI was an independent body and  the government played no role in the decision, and called for the public to be  patient.


Mr. Singh, dressed in an olive-green shirt and a white  turban, then threw his blue and white sneaker at Mr. Chidambaram, narrowly  missing his face.


Moments later, Mr. Chidambaram repeatedly asked the  reporters in the room to "settle down," and said, "the emotional outburst of one  man should not hijack a press conference." Soon after, Mr. Singh told TV news  reporters that he regretted throwing the shoe but he felt Mr. Chidambaram was  dodging the question.


"I just wanted to ask him how justice will be done, but  he was not interested in answering the questions," he told CNN-IBN during a  telephone interview from police custody.


"I don't think it was the right way, what I have done,  but the issue is right." Mr. Singh didn't say whether he was inspired by Iraqi  journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who last month was sentenced to three years in  prison for throwing his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush in  Baghdad.


The 1984 riots, which remain a very controversial issue  in India, left more than 3,000 dead, most of whom were Sikhs. The carnage  erupted across India after former prime minister Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards  shot her to death. Many blame Congress party officials for turning a blind eye  or even supporting the rioters in the violence that ensued after their leader  was slain.


On Tuesday, hundreds of Sikhs held protests over the  CBI's findings in front of the home of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the  daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi.


Jagdish Tytler, the center of the controversy, was a  lawmaker at the time and remains a divisive figure in Indian politics. He is  currently campaigning for re-election to Parliament in elections that begin  later this month.


_Copyright © 2009 Associated  Press_


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## Sikh News Reporter (Apr 7, 2009)

*Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- An Indian journalist threw a shoe at Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram at a news conference angered by the minister’s response to a question related to a party leader, who is alleged to have instigated anti-Sikh riots.

More...


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## spnadmin (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*

I am not a proponent of throwing shoes. But I have to say this: The Home Minister is not even an elected official in my own country and he taxes my patience anyway. He had the same "looking down his nose" attitude right after the attacks in Mumbai in November. Everything appears theoretical and cut and dry without any sense that he GRASPS the enormity of human suffering in this or any situation. So I hope the journalist gets a better pair of shoes.


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## spnadmin (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

Ji

I posted this remark on the Newsmaker thread -- so forgive me if this seems like spam.

I am not a proponent of throwing shoes. But I have to say this: The Home Minister is not even an elected official in my own country and he taxes my patience anyway. He had the same "looking down his nose" attitude right after the attacks in Mumbai in November. Everything appears theoretical and cut and dry without any sense that he GRASPS the enormity of any situation having to do with urgent suffering. So I hope the journalist gets a better pair of shoes.


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## kds1980 (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

I salute this brave man.He has done what all the other sikhs have failed to do.Today almost whole the media was covering this issue.Congress leaders were seems to be frustratred.Infact in evening there was a news that congressing is reconsidering ticket to Tytler and sajjan kumar.The younger generation will know what happened in 1984 to the sikhs.Thanks to this man


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## deepsingh87 (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

i wish it had hit him in the face. 

i guess the singh must have watched the bush incident. lol


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## spnadmin (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

This is how it feels to be asked to wait, to be patient, to be logical. When you are asked to wait for years, and when you are yourself the evidence of injustice THAT MAY NOT BE HEARD.

*A Raisin in the Sun - Langston Hughes *

*



*

What happens to a dream deferred?​ Does it dry up 
  like a raisin in the sun?​ 
                Or fester like a sore-- 
                And then run? 
​ Does it stink like rotten meat? 
    Or crust and sugar over-- 
    like a syrupy sweet?
​ Maybe it just sags 
  like a heavy load.
​ _Or does it explode?


_​                       Langston Hughes is an important African American poet who wrote the story of injustice felt and lived by people of color in the US. The same words may yet apply to 1984 victims. The journalist who threw his shoe -- just exploded. :welcome:


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*


source:  *http://www.dailypioneer.com/167965/Sikhs-seek-justice-Jairnal-Singh-gets-job-offer-from-SGPC.html*



*Sikhs seek  justice, Jairnal Singh gets job offer from  SGPC*

*Rajeev Ranjan Roy - The Daily Pioneer  -Chandigarh -  April 8, 2009*

The Sikh community’s pent up anger over  the denial of justice in 1984 riots came out again in the open on Tuesday,  following Jarnail Singh’s throwing shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Sikh  Gurudwara Prabandh Committee (SGPC), the community's highest decision making  body, went on to offer a respectable job to Singh.

Chief Minister Parkash  Singh Badal said the act should serve as “an eye opener for the Centre,  especially for the Congress, about the depth and magnitude of pain and angst  over clean chits given to those guilty of the unspeakable horror of 1984  massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs.”

The common refrain from the  masses from across Punjab was--“His act might have upset others, but one should  understand the trauma Sikh community has suffered for 25 years.” They even  warned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi against batting for two Lok Sabha seats  (Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar) at the cost of 23 seats in north  India.

“We would extend all kind of help including financial, security,  job and protection to Jarnail and his family,” said SGPC president Avtar Singh  Makkar, adding there was outrage among Sikhs for giving clean chit to Jagdish  Tytler.

“Jarnail took the extreme step under the sheer influence of his  emotions, and was not intended to harm P. Chidambaram. His act showed resentment  of Sikh community for denying justice even after 25 years of pogrom,” Makkar  told The Pioneer.

Said Jathedar Akal Takht Gyani Gurbachan Singh: “I feel  Jarnail was not wrong, since what he did was the out come of injured sentiments.  Here I would clear that Sikh community would always stand with  him.”

There were dissenting voices too, but what was significantly  conveyed was the kind of anger the Sikhs were writhing with after the CBI  exonerated Tytler for his alleged role in 1984 Sikh carnage and the Congress  deciding to field him along with another accused Sajjan Kumar from their  respective parliamentary seats in Delhi for re-election.

Punjab has 13  Lok Sabha seats out of which 9 are held currently by the SAD-BJP alliance. The  neighboring Haryana has 10 seats out of which nine are with the Congress. Since  Sikhs are in a sizeable in number in Haryana, and of course with dominance in  Punjab, the political implications of Sikh outrage cannot be ruled out.  

Said the chief of Damdami Taksal Baba Harnam Singh Dhuma: “The Sikhs  will give a befitting reply to the Congress in the coming Lok Sabha poll. Such  an extreme step by a learned person only shows the gravity of the  issue.”

Disapproving Jarnail Singh’s act, a veteran Sikh scholar and  writer Principal Mohan Sigh Prem based in Patiala said: “The Congress president  Sonia Gandhi has to decide now if she goes ahead with giving tickets to Jagdish  Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and end up losing over 22 seats from north India where  Sikhs are a deciding factor.”

Agreed Dr Gurbachan Singh Rahi: “One cannot  approve Jarnail’s way of protest but the Congress should re-think for allotting  party tickets to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.”

“How long one can wait  for justice? It is but natural to get frustrated by the system. He must have got  hurt over and over again. Otherwise, what was the need for an intellectual to  indulge in this kind of act,” said MS Bharaj, a senior producer with  Doordarshan, Jalandhar.

Said industrialist Amanbir Singh Marvaha: “The  political class has usurped everything and still they want that they should be  treated respectfully by those who are victims of their long apathy. Is it  possible?”

Added Sarbjit Singh, owner of CCIT, a Ludhiana based computer  institute: “Politicians should learn a lesson from the incident and gauge the  anger prevailing among common people about them and their  misdeeds.”

Gurcharan Singh Grewal, president, Sikh Students Federation,  said one might not agree with Jarnail Singh’s way of protest, but has anybody  ever thought of the pang the dependents of 1984 Sikh riot victims was passing  through.

“Over 25 years gone but the assassins of 1984 riots are not  given punishment. Injustice meted out to Sikh community has provoked Jarnail  Singh to take such an extreme step. It would be better if the Congress withdraws  Tytler from the fray,” said Grewal.

-- _With inputs from Gagandeep  Ahuja in Patiala, Jagmohan Singh in Amritsar, Arshdeep Singh in Ludhiana, Gauri  Bawa in Jalandhar_


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

How could he MISS ?? So near !!
:inca:::


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## BhagatSingh (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

Didn't he have another one?!!? 
:}{}{}:


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

Really ?? Badal is himself sitting on the TIWARI REPORT on the custodial death of Akal Takhat jathedar S. Gurdev Singh Kaonke !! There are MANY skeletons in PUNJAB AKALIS Cupboards....this is just oppirtunism...make hay while the sun shines...:}8-:


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## BhagatSingh (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

There is so much s*** in the world. How do we go about cleaning it up?


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 7, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

stop doing our "business" ??..as a First step !!:advocate:


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## japjisahib04 (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*



aad0002 said:


> I am not a proponent of throwing shoes. But I have to say this: The Home Minister is not even an elected official in my own country and he taxes my patience anyway. He had the same "looking down his nose" attitude right after the attacks in Mumbai in November. Everything appears theoretical and cut and dry without any sense that he GRASPS the enormity of human suffering in this or any situation. So I hope the journalist gets a better pair of shoes.


Dear Aad Ji
You are right. These are so shamless people, that when Tyler visited Kuwait I asked him a question why did he lead the mob. He said he is not involved and he didn't do anything. I repeated once again and enquired does his conscious pricks him or not for provoking mob to kill innocents sikhs. He said don't talk about conscious.
Best reagrds


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## prabhsmart (Apr 8, 2009)

*'Shoe-throwing incident reflects Sikh community's pent-up anger'*

*'Shoe-throwing incident reflects Sikh community's pent-up anger'* 

New Delhi (PTI): Sikh groups on Tuesday said the incident of shoe-throwing at Home Minister P Chidambaram reflected the long pent-up anger of the community which had suffered in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. 
"Whatever has happened was waiting to happen for long. 
The Congress has failed to deliver justice to thousands of Sikhs who have suffered in anti-Sikh riots instigated by party leaders such as Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar," Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) General Secretary Onkar Singh Thapar said. 
Echoing similar sentiments, member of Amritsar Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) Kuldeep Singh Bhogal said, "We are very happy. Whatever has happened was right." 
"It is most unfortunate for Sikhs that a culprit like Tytler has been given a clean chit by a central investigation agency when the country is led by a member of the community," said Mr. Bhogal. 
"Giving Lok Sabha tickets to Sajjan Kumar and Tytler has just rubbed salt into our wounds," Mr. Thapar added. 
Babu Singh Dukhiya, who heads the National 1984 victims Justice and Welfare Society, an NGO, also welcomed the "bold" action by journalist Jarnail Singh and stated that "whatever he has done is nothing wrong. Whatever he did was just right and we support him." The CBI last month gave Mr. Tytler a clean chit in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and informed a Delhi court that it wanted to close the matter, caused resentment in the Sikh community. 

The path to original article
The Hindu News Update Service


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## prabhsmart (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: 'Shoe-throwing incident reflects Sikh community's pent-up anger'*

Jarnail Singh veerji 50 Choupai *sahib paith for thanking Guruji to give u the strenghth. *
*We all r always with u.*

*May Guruji bless u all.:happy:*


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## prabhsmart (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*

These people r bread of pigs, they r useless for everyone. they should be ________ if we could.:inca:


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: 'Shoe-throwing incident reflects Sikh community's pent-up anger'*

Is it only ME..or what ?
The Other Gandhi..VARUN..son of Menka Gandhi..daughter of SIKHS..has vomitted out so much Racist/slanderous/desh dhrohi/REMARKS  AGAINST SIKHS....yet I havent heard a PEEP from Any Sikh, politicians, gurdwara parbhandaks, Badal Daliahs, any other SIKH Organsiations whatever. ALL are keeping so ultra quiet. This Varun speeches are the WORST type of LOW life remarks agaisnt ALL SIKHS.
NO protests, no newspaper editorials EXCEPT from Rozana Spokesman. 
LALLU..the Railway Minsiter is on record as having said..IF I was the HOME MINISTER..I woudl have placed this varun under a ROAD ROLLER and crushed him like a dirty FLY and dam
n the consequences. THis is coming from a HINDU...and sikhs are quiet ??

There is also another Gandhi..the RAHUL chappie..he hasnt ever said a rude word agaisnt the Sikhs..ever. If he ever spoke..it was praise for Sikhs...His Father Rajiv ordered the Delhi Massacres...but SON doesnt say a word anti-sikh.... Yet Varuns father Sanjay is not in that "field" but his son Varun si so full of HATE and VENOM gaisnt SIKHS..Raab Rakha..:}8-::}8-::}8-::}8-::}8-:


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*

What about VARUN ?? He is vomitting hate and venom against SIKHS....so much so that lallu the Railway Minister wanted to crush him under a Road Roller and damn the consequences ??..BUT SIKHS are all quiet about him ?? Double Standards ??why ??:down:


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## Admin (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

All three threads on this topic merged into one. please be informed. Thank you.


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## kds1980 (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*



Gyani Jarnail Singh said:


> What about VARUN ?? He is vomitting hate and venom against SIKHS....so much so that lallu the Railway Minister wanted to crush him under a Road Roller and damn the consequences ??..BUT SIKHS are all quiet about him ?? Double Standards ??why ??:down:




Varun Gandhi's speeches came in the form Of Cds and they yet to be authenticated by
forensic laboratory.We all know about the technology available today.There is no way we can compare Varun with Tytler,sajjan who are known killers of sikhs.ACtions speak louder than words


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## dalsingh (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*

Is this it? Is this the final sign (if ever it was needed) that India does not deliver justice?

Nearly 25 years and this is what we get?


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## kds1980 (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Sikh Journalist Hurls Shoe at India’s Home Minister Chidambaram (Bloomberg)*



dalsingh said:


> Is this it? Is this the final sign (if ever it was needed) that India does not deliver justice?
> 
> Nearly 25 years and this is what we get?



Justice is very hard to obtain in India and in such type of crime's nearly impossible.Law has many loopholes and the worst thing is that Delhi sikh Gurdwara committe itself is a soldout
to congress


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

*source: Shoe-attack: What the other parties say - The Financial Express#*

*Shoe-attack: What the other  parties say

*Express news service - Financial  Express
Posted online: Apr 08, 2009 at 1106  hrs


*New Delhi**Communist Party  of India (Marxist)*

The CPI(M), which could not hide its glee when George W  Bush was attacked with a shoe, on Tuesday fumbled for a response when it came to  reacting to its Indian variant. At best, the party could say that the  journalist’s mode of protest was “inappropriate”. 



“In a democracy, people have the freedom to express their  protest. This may be one way of expressing it. Now let the law take its own  course,” CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said reacting to the  Chidambaram shoe-throwing incident. When prodded further, he admitted that the  mode of protest was “inappropriate”. “We feel it is not the way to be done. You  tell me now. He is from your fraternity,” he shot back. 



Yechury’s response to an Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe  at former President Bush is a study in contrasts. “It should have happened  earlier. It shows the level of anger and anguish people all over the world have  against the US president, which our Prime Minister does not understand,” he had  said then.


On the issue of the CBI giving a clean chit to Jagdish  Tytler, Yechury said “as we have been saying all along, the CBI is used by the  party in power for various agendas.” 



CPM’s Prakash Karat said,”There is anger among the Sikh  community... Obviously there is some anger against Congress for giving the  ticket to a leader alleged to have been involved in the anti-Sikh riots.” 




*Bharatiya Janata Party*

BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj: “We condemn this  uncivilised act, but we also feel that this should act as an eye-opener for  Congress. For, it shows the deep-rooted hurt over the gross injustice meted out  to the Sikhs, even after 25 years of the riots, which killed more than 4,000  people.” “Both Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler should be withdrawn from the  elections,” said another BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh. 




*Samajwadi Party*

Amar Singh: “The wounds of the anti-Sikh riots are yet to  heal”, Singh remarked and without naming the Tytler case cast doubts on the  CBI’s neutrality. “I don’t believe that the CBI is neutral. When we were not in  government it was used against us,” he said. 




*Janata Dal (United)*

JD(U) general secretary Javed Raza termed the incident  “unfortunate,” but said it underlined the deep sense of hurt in the Sikh  community over the manner in which the 1984 riot cases had been handled by the  UPA regime. He said the clean chit given to Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and  Jagdish Tytler ahead of the elections had obviously led to the attack, which  should serve as an eye-opener for the ruling party. 




*Nationalist Congress Party*

NCP general secretary Akhtar Hasan Rizvi defended the  Congress and gave a clean chit to the party over fielding Jagdish Tytler and  Sajjan Kumar. “The anti-Sikh riots issue is being used with political motives by  those opposed to the Congress. If the CBI did not find any evidence against  Tytler then what is wrong in fielding him? If both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar  contested and won the elections in 2004 then why is such a hue and cry being  raised now?”


_*************************************************************_


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## spnadmin (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

*Samajwadi Party*

Amar Singh: “The wounds of the anti-Sikh riots are yet to heal”, Singh remarked and without naming the Tytler case cast doubts on the CBI’s neutrality. “I don’t believe that the CBI is neutral. When we were not in government it was used against us,” he said. 

What about the widow's colony? What about the movie where voiced protest of widows was dubbed out? What about months of {censored}-footing around in the Tytler hearings? What about the witnesses that caved? 

My point is how long do you wait for justice. Justice delayed is justice denied. When the matter is treated as if it is necessary to apply justice in the abstract of course someone is going to throw something. That is really a restrained reaction. 

Yes throwing shoes is kind of ineffective -- but Congress could at least try to sound as if there is empathy for thousands of people for whom justice feels frustrated.  Just my 2 cents! I don't even life in India.


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

*Calling Me Akali Member is Laughable: Jarnail Singh

*
*New Delhi - April 8, 2009
*
Jarnail Singh, the journalist who lobbed a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram, has said that it was 'laughable' that politicians were linking him with Akali Dal, instead of addressing the issue of justice to the victims of the mindless anti-Sikh violence of 1984.

The journalist had come into focus after he hurled a shoe at Chidambaram during a press conference yesterday, to protest against the CBI's clean chit to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Earlier in the day, Tytler had called Jarnail Singh an Akali Dal member.

"Some politician have called me an Akali Dal activist. It is only laughable. I have no affiliation or membership of any political party. I am a neutral journalist and am proud of my neutrality," said Jarnail Singh.

"Politicians are making senseless allegations against me and my political affiliation. I have made it clear that I am not against any political party, including the Congress.

"Politicians should concentrate on the issue of justice to the Sikh community instead of trying to politicise my protest," Singh said.

Referring to the Nanavati Commission that indicted Tytler and other Congress leaders for the anti-Sikh riots, Jarnail Singh said that the Sikh community was ready to accept the apology of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi after the commission had submitted its report.

"But this clean chit and the Lok Sabha nomination is only reminding the Sikh community of the atrocity perpetrated on it in 1984 and even after waiting patiently for the last two-and-a-half-decade. Justice has not been done," he said.

Stating that the Sikh community was ready to forget the riots, provided justice was delivered for the victims. "There is not even symbolism to show that justice is being done to the victims," he said.

On the cash awards and jobs being offered to him after yesterday's shoe-pelting incident, the journalist said the political parties were only trying to cash in on the episode by politicising it.

"Instead, they should offer help to the poor victims by hiring good lawyers for them and providing jobs to their families. I humbly refuse to accept these cash awards," he said.

Regarding Sikh groups planning protests holding shoes, Jarnail Singh appealed to them not to indulge in such acts, but to hold their protests peacefully.

Thanking Chidambaram for showing understanding to his emotional outburst, the journalist said that he did not intend to hurt anybody and that was why he just lobbed his shoe to the vacant spot beside the Minister.

"I did not throw the shoe. I only lobbed it, that too away from Chidambaram. As a journalist, I regret the way I protested. But I reiterate that the issue I raised was just," he said.

Stating that he was pained that politicians were trying to take advantage of his protest, Jarnail Singh said that he was against violence and appealed to the government to bring in a legislation against communal violence on the lines of the anti-terror law.

Noting that the Sikh community had come a long way since the 1984 riots, Jarnail Singh said that it would not be sensible for the government if the scar of injustice meted out to the victims continued to remain in the community's heart.

"The government should understand that injustice done even 5,000 years ago can still cause hurt and wound in the hearts of the people living today. The issues are emotional in nature and the government should consider delivering justice to heal those wounds," he added.


news.outlookindia.com | Calling Me Akali Member is Laughable: Jarnail Singh


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## Admin (Apr 8, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*

*Journo wanted to provoke, not to hurt me: Chidambaram
*
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was the target of a Sikh journalist's ire on Tuesday on the issue of CBI clean chit to Jagdish Tytler in anti-Sikh riots cases, said on Wednesday that he thought the scribe intended to provoke him and not hurt him. 

He said it was for the party to decide whether it should give ticket to Tytler and he cannot comment because he "is neither the minister-in-charge nor the judge." 

"I cannot pronounce anybody guilty or innocent," he said when asked by a TV channel whether it was proper for the party to give tickets to people like Tytler against whom questions have been raised. 

"No, not at all. I don't think he intended to hurt me. He intended to provoke me. Why should I be provoked," he said in reply to a question whether he was scared by Tuesday's incident. 
He also said that he did not expect the journalist to apologise to him personally as he has apologised and his employer called up to apologise. "I don't expect any further apology."

Asked if he felt that the journalist's action would rapture relations between media and politicians, the minister said "why, no, not at all. I think it was an emotional outburst by one journalist and I think we should allow it to rest." 


To another question if this incident merited enhanced security for him, Chidambaram shot back saying "one PSO is one too many." Asked if he was sure, he said "hundred per cent sure."


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## RAVINDER PAL SINGH (Apr 9, 2009)

*Re: Journalist throws shoe at Indian offical*



Soul_jyot said:


> source:  *The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Sikhs seek justice Jairnal Singh gets job offer from SGPC*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think it would be most appropriate if Sardar Jarnail Singh is given a ticket by Akali Dal to enable him to become an MP then he would surely be capable of creating a storm in the Lok Sabha

I unabadhedly :welcome: his actions & would support him whole heartedly


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## Amanpreet Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

WJKK WJKF

This man is a Hero.Shame on us who had failed to do like this.

Amanpreet Singh:happy::happy:


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 9, 2009)

*Congress withdraws Tytler, Sajjan from poll fray*

*source:* NDTV.com: General Elections 2009: Congress withdraws Tytler, Sajjan from poll fray& 

*Congress withdraws Tytler, Sajjan from poll  fray

*

Press  Trust of India
Thursday, April 09, 2009  (New Delhi)



A worried Congress on Thursday withdrew its  controversial leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from the electoral fray as  the ghost of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots returned to haunt the party over their  alleged role in the carnage.


"Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have  expressed their sentiments that they do not wish to embarrass the party by  contesting Lok Sabha elections when some political parties and individuals have  tried to vitiate the atmosphere. They have opted out of Lok Sabha  elections.


"The party has accepted their feelings and decided that they  will not be Lok Sabha candidates of the Indian National Congress," party General  Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters shortly after Tytler announced his  decision to opt out of the race.


The Congress decision comes amid a  raging controversy over fielding the two leaders, whose names figured as accused  in the 1984 riots, accentuated by the incident of throwing of shoe by a Sikh  journalist at Home Minister P Chidambaram at AICC press conference on  Tuesday.


The journalist said he was protesting against the clean chit  given by CBI to Tytler in the riots case, an issue on which the agency today  told a local court here that it had no jurisdiction to go into. The case has  been deferred till April 28.


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## Tejwant Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

*Re: Congress withdraws Tytler, Sajjan from poll fray*

Shoe throwing was the icing on the cake for these two fiendish criminals of 1984 genocide not to run for MP seats. Now let us see if the same pressure makes CBI change its past decision and Supreme Court to show supreme justice against the atrocities commited by people against the Sikhs.

And I agree, this brave Sikh journalist should be given MP ticket in the coming elections. We need people like him in the political arena.

Tejwant Singh


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## kds1980 (Apr 9, 2009)

Today the Entire media covered this issue.Special programmes were shown and Tv channels are still showing.All thanks to Mr.Jarnail singh


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## Admin (Apr 9, 2009)

*PM seeks explanation from CBI on clean chit to Tytler*

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to explain the circumstances that led to the agency giving a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler, said reports.

According to reports, the Prime Minister apparently has also asked for the details of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The UPA has been under growing pressure to drop Tytler as a Lok Sabha candidate ever since the CBI cleared him of all charges. And on Wednesday, there were massive protests by Sikhs across Punjab.

The big question now is will the Congress dump Tytler? So far there has been no official word from the Congress on Tytler's fate, but the party knows that it is at risk of losing the Sikh vote.

And it may be left with little choice if the court on Thursday rejects the clean chit given by the CBI.

Now that Congress president Sonia Gandhi is back from her tour of Kerala, the party could take a final call on Tytler on Thursday. The outrage against the Congress giving a ticket to Tytler and the CBI's clean chit to him has grown stronger with journalist Jarnail Singh throwing a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press conference.


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## spnadmin (Apr 9, 2009)

I hope that they remember to list among other things: missing witnesses 10 years or more; witnesses who will not testify in India; witnesses who withdrew testimony and won't talk about it.


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

It bore fruit..the Congress has denied the two their Tickets.
for once I am proud to be this guys namesake !! Tytler and  Kumar wont be running under the Congress Ticket.:whisling::whisling::whisling:


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## deepsingh87 (Apr 9, 2009)

did tytler and kumar resign or did the congress party kicked them out?


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

NO ...neither......they "DECLINED" to contest to "save Congress further embarrassment" !!
:whisling:


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## spnadmin (Apr 9, 2009)

They resigned -- but you know they were asked to resign (just my intuition no facts).

*Gyani was posting just as i was responding.  Gyani ji is saying they declined to contest. Better go with what he says. My reading could be wrong. *


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## deepsingh87 (Apr 9, 2009)

if the congress party made them resign, we ask the party why so late?


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## spnadmin (Apr 9, 2009)

deepsingh ji

The 65,000 dollar question that answers itself. :welcome: Maybe they are slow learners. It took a shoe to remind them of what they already knew. I can remember my mother chasing my brother around the house with her shoe whenever he "forgot" what he was supposed to do.


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## Tejwant Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

deepsingh87 said:


> did tytler and kumar resign or did the congress party kicked them out?


 
Well, in the poitical world they say that they were whispered in their ears to do what they did. Saving faces from more 'shoe throwing' is a political dance done all over the world.

Tejwant Singh.

PS: From the horse's mouth: Just got a phone call from a Congress MLA in Punjab, a right hand man of Capt. Amarinder Singh. This person and I grew up together and went to the same school. He said that both of them were told to do what they did.


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

aad0002 said:


> deepsingh ji
> 
> The 65,000 dollar question that answers itself. :welcome: Maybe they are slow learners. It took a shoe to remind them of what they already knew. I can remember my mother chasing my brother around the house with her shoe whenever he "forgot" what he was supposed to do.



HE HE he... I got a shoe thrown at me by my mum when i exasperated her beyond her usual endless limit..i still remember....and never forgot ever again ( to WASH my school shoes on weekends)


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## Tejwant Singh (Apr 9, 2009)

aad0002 said:


> deepsingh ji
> 
> The 65,000 dollar question that answers itself. :welcome: Maybe they are slow learners. It took a shoe to remind them of what they already knew. I can remember my mother chasing my brother around the house with her shoe whenever he "forgot" what he was supposed to do.


 
Antonia ji,

lol. My mum used to throw her heavy wooden clogs- kharavan- which the people used to wear in the kitchen, at us, boys in the family. Luckily she never hit her intended targets.

Tejwant Singh


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## spnadmin (Apr 9, 2009)

Hot from the computer key board of Tejwant ji (VaheguruSeekr) some insight into the character of Jarnail Singh ji -- a mild-mannered person who couldn't believe what he was hearing I guess.

sikhchic.com | The Art and Culture of the Diaspora | Article Detail






*The.Sardar*

*My Friend & Hero
Sardar Jarnail SinghSUJAN DUTTA*


  When the shoe flew towards Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's face and the camera showed two men packing off a Sardar from the Congress Party venue, I knew it - the face was turned away from the cameras but that gait had to belong to my friend, Sardar Jarnail Singh. 

  Jarnail Singh, who hates getting out on zero, who tonks the tennis ball a long way during winter weekends of cricket and chucks the ball a long way from the fence, too, had thrown - and missed - a target two metres from where he was sitting. 

  But he had made the transition from byline to headline.  

  He is repentant hours after the incident. "As a journalist, I realise now that I should not have done it," he says this evening. 

  "I should not have chucked my shoe, but I was emotionally overtaken. But do try and understand that in the last 25 years every party has got an opportunity to give justice (to the Sikhs), but no one has." 

  Jarnail is still emotionally surcharged. But he does not forget to mention a story _The Telegraph_ broke last week. He says he wants to follow it up.  

  He says he is not going to take up politics as a career, now that Sikh parties are queuing up at his door. He is still unsure about his job, though. 

  The condoning of Jagdish Tytler by the Indian government and Chidambaram saying that he is happy about it, is something that Jarnail says he feels "very strongly about". 
  In our many chats and conversations, I never once asked Jarnail about his personal travails in 1984. Like he has never asked about mine. We have assumed that we have both travelled painful roads. He is a few years younger than me. 

  In 1984, at the time of the carnage that killed thousands of innocent Sikhs, Jarnail would have been in his teens, his formative years. Someone in his family, or extended family, would have been lost to him. 


  But today I break that barrier and ask if he was personally affected. "No," he says. "No one in my immediate family." But he knows of many who have. 

  Reporters on the beat like him do not cross that fine line between journalism and activism easily. For six years and more, Jarnail has been a regular on the defence beat. He and I and others from almost every major newspaper, television channel and magazine have been visiting the armed forces headquarters nearly every working day, taking most trips on the air force's turbo-prop transport planes from Delhi to Kochi to Jammu to Dimapur. 

  For hours, the drone of the aircraft has stymied conversation inside but Jarnail has this enviable quality to sleep through the flights. It means he reaches the destination fully rested. As soon as the aircraft - usually the noisy AN-32 with benches (instead of the comfy seats you usually have on commercial aircraft) - take off, Jarnail stretches out and snores, his loose beard splayed on his chest also rising and falling. 

  Sometimes he carries a portable CD player, too, and listens to Gurbani and very often he carries a miniature Guru Granth Sahib.  

  In the evenings, after deadline time, with the reports for the day filed, he interjects in discussions when the talk is about Palestine and on the Irish question or, of course, on Kashmir and on the Indian Army, and on Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and the militaries of the world. That is what it is like on the defence beat. 

  He jokes often enough. An army major once told him the entire force had only one "General" - distorting Jarnail's name to make it sound like "General" - and that too was a rank achieved after decades. Jarnail shot back: "_Arre_, you haven't even met my brother, he is born a Colonel (Karnail)."  

  Jarnail is incorruptible.  

  At {censored}tail parties, he has fruit juice. I have never once seen him accepting gifts offered by armament companies.  

  It's funny that the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi chapter) has today offered him a reward of Rs. 200,000 for chucking his shoe at Chidambaram. 

  In news conferences, Jarnail is dogged. His questions are sharp and he wants to follow them up with supplementaries. He takes his religion seriously, but he is no preacher. More a live and let live type. 

  In the last six months, he's put himself through a strict regimen of diet and exercise and is now fitter than at any time since I have known him. He's also become a father for the second time recently. 

  Jarnail used to be rotund, rather sweetly roly-poly. Now he is lean. He never tucks his shirt in and always wears sneakers. The puppy fat on his face isn't quite hidden by his flowing beard. 

  Jarnail is mild-mannered. He has lost his temper while playing cricket. That cannot apply to his general approach to life. I can imagine him getting angry over a particular event if someone were to deliberately, personally humiliate him. 

  To feel hurt enough and act in the way Jarnail did this morning, and to make the transition from byline to headline, must take something special for a journalist on the beat. 

  [Courtesy: _The Telegraph_, Calcutta, India]  
_  April 9, 2009  
_


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## pk70 (Apr 9, 2009)

*For decades they cried, no one heard them, for decades they protested, no body paid special attention, now the election is around the corner, a shoe of brave Jarnail Singh ji made them realized to act.
there is a saying in Hindi " jooton ke bhoot baton se nahin mante( people  who are used to punishment do not get convinced with a mere talk) has been proven right again by S. Jarnail Singh ji.

By the way,   why all  the Sikhs in congress party couldnt do a damn about it for so long?
Answer lies in the fact that politicians are usually sold either to money or hope to get power, thery have no religion or consious. 
Funny thing is now Badal is talking about it thinking people are stupid and wont question his shameful behavior towards victims !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 10, 2009)

all politicians are like the Buffaloes in the Mud....none is clean.
And ALL politicians have to be REGULARLY changed like Diapers....and for the SAME REASON.:happy:


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 10, 2009)

source:  http://www.andhranews.net/India/2009/April/10-Tytler-apologizes-99837.asp

*Tytler apologizes for shameful 1984 riots*

April 10, 2009 -  Andhra News

_Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has vowed to apologize  a thousand times for the shameful anti-Sikh riots in 1984._
_
_
*New Delhi, Apr. 10* : Congress leader  Jagdish Tytler has vowed to apologize "a thousand times" for the "shameful"  anti-Sikh riots in 1984.


"I will apologize because it happened in our time. I  would apologize a thousand times for what happened to the whole Sikh community.  I would say whatever happened was shameful," a TV news channel quoted him as,  saying.


On Thursday, a troubled Congress cancelled the names of  leaders Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from the electoral fray as the ghost of the 1984  anti-Sikh riots returned to haunt the party.


Tytler, who was the Congress candidate in North East  Delhi, now holds the then government responsible for the 1984's  blood-shed.


"I would say the people, the administration and the  governor, who should have controlled (the situation), did not control at that  time," Tytler said.


The Congress decision comes amid the enraged Sikh  community protesting against the CBI decision to give a clean chit to Tytler in  1984 riots.


An incident of shoe-throwing by a Sikh journalist at Home  Minister P Chidambaram at AICC press  conference further aggravated the situation.


ANI


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## spnadmin (Apr 10, 2009)

*CBI has no evidence against Tytler? Why not? Could this be one of many reasons why not?*

Source is Outlook India

*'Ever Since I Deposed Against Tytler...'* *'...I have not had a moment's peace,' says Surinder Singh, who was a granthi at Gurudwara Pulbangash in Delhi during the 1984 riots and adds that he vividly remembers 'seeing Tytler urging rioters not to waste time on looting but to get down to killing people'* 










Chander Suta Dogra interviews Surinder Singh




		 			 				| e-mail | one page format | feedback:  					 						 send  					- read | 				 			 		 		 	
 _Surinder Singh was a granthi at Gurudwara Pulbangash in Delhi during the 1984 riots. After resiling from his statement given to the Nanavati Commission, allegedly due to pressure from Jagdish Tytler, he was emboldened to give a fresh statement to the CBI following the SFJ campaign in 2008. 
_



*The CBI has told the court that the case against Tytler should be closed as your statement is inconsistent and unreliable.*
I had first given a statement to the CBI in February 2008 and immediately after that I went to Bridgewater gurudwara in New Jersey to escape harassment from Tytler’s men. In December 2008 the CBI again grilled me for 14 hours in the US and wanted me to identify colour of clothes, shoes and turbans of the victims. After 25 years I do not remember these details but I do remember vividly seeing Tytler urging rioters not to waste time on looting but to get down to killing people.

So the mob put a tyre around Ragi Badal Singh, a Sikh police inspector Thakur Singh, and a Sikh servant and set them on fire. Tytler was there from 9 am to 11am overseeing the carnage. The CBI’s questioning was only designed to let Tytler off. During those 14 hours of questioning they kept accusing me of telling lies and threatened to take action against me if I do not tell the truth. 



* You wanted to leave Delhi and settle in Punjab, after the deposition. What happened? *
 I had been asking the SGPC to give me a job in a Punjab gurudwara, but for the last two years they have been paying just lip service. I broke my silence of so many years only for the community, but unfortunately I have not got any support from the Sikhs in Punjab. I am scared to open my door and have security neither from the Punjab police or the Delhi police. The NRI Sikhs are more helpful. 



*Why are you scared?*
 I am a poor man who is being used as a pawn. Ever since I deposed against Tytler, I have not had a moment’s peace. My passport was impounded as soon as I returned from the US in February. 



  They have got my daughter in law to slap a dowry case on me and I am scared to go out to attend the hearing. The case was filed in March 2008 but they have activated it only now after I have returned. It is a flimsy case because my son has got a work permit from Canada only now and could not take his wife with him. Then, her visa was rejected because, they were unable to prove that she was married to my son. We have processed the papers again and it will work out.  



 Before I went abroad, I had one Punjab Police security man, but that too has been withdrawn now. With no protection and the Punjab leaders and SGPC too busy with elections, I have no hope of any help from them. They are powerful men and very arrogant. They have no use for a poor granthi like me. I rue the day I decided to depose against Tytler.


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## spnadmin (Apr 11, 2009)

*Jarnail Singh interviewed later by Rahul Singh in the Hindustani Times
*

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_04_2009_006_003&kword=&mode=1

I AM not excited. I don't feel victorious, said Jarnail Singh as he
watched a news channel breaking the story on Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar
being denied Lok Sabha tickets.

If the Sikh community is mollified by Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar being
denied tickets, then I would say I have achieved a small part of my
objective, said the 36-year-old journalist.

An unassuming reporter who covered the defence beat, Singh shot into
limelight after he threw his Reebok shoe at Home Minister P.

Chidambaram on Tuesday protesting the CBI clean chit to Tytler in the 1984
anti-Sikh riots case.

Remorseful, he insisted that he never intended to hit the minister. ?I
tossed the shoe to his right. Impulse got the better of me. The home min
ister had said last week that he was happy that Tytler had got a clean chit.

I was bereft of all hope. Did he not know that our hearts had bled for 25
years, said Singh, known among his colleagues as a reticent and
uncontroversial man.

His cell phone rang incessantly at his brother?s modest apartment in Lajpat
Nagar. His brother runs a business of automobile accessories.

Singh swigged down a mango drink.

It appeared as if nothing has changed.

Only, he has not returned home since Tuesday and almost forgot to wish his
wife on their wedding anniversary on Wednesday . He missed being with his
six-year-old son and the two-year-old daughter.

Singh, I always called him Jerry, had bought the Reebok pair from a store
in Seattle last May during an assignment. He had asked me if they looked
cool. I had nodded in agreement. The sneakers cost him $60. He grinned when
I reminded him that.

Did you get your shoe back, I asked.

Negative, he replied.

I checked out his new leather sandals. They were black. The sneakers were
white with a blue logo.

Singh veered the conversation from the offbeat to the more intense. It?s
not about two men not contesting the elections. It?s about healing the
wounds of the Sikhs. The ghost of the 1984 massacre never left us,?he said,
switching off his cell phone that was being bombarded with calls from
journalists wanting his reaction on the Tytler-Sajjan Kumar saga. All this
is giving me a headache. Singh was playing cricket in the neighbourhood
park when a mob charged into Lajpat Nagar to slaughter Sikhs, 25 years ago.
His mother hid him in a small room. His polio-strick en brother was
attacked. The neighbourhood gurudwara was burnt down. Those images are still
fresh in his mind.

I never wanted to be in the limelight. I only wanted to remind the nation
that Sikhs are still waiting for justice. This is India and not Afghanistan
where the Taliban rule,said Singh. He is known to be deeply religious but
not dogmatic. He often read spiritual books while travelling on defence
assignments.

When the PM apologised for the anti-Sikh riots in 2005, it purged the
bitterness from our hearts. The Sikhs were hopeful that justice would be
done. And then the CBI gave a clean chit to Tytler. He clarified that he
had no plans to jump into the hurly-burly of politics. Nor is he hankering
for cash rewards announced by a few Sikh organisations. Use the money for
the rehabilitation of riot victims, he said.

rahul.singh@hindustantimes.com


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## Archived_Member16 (Apr 12, 2009)

*Sunday Pioneer*, New Delhi, April 12, 2009 


*When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty!*

*MJ Akbar

*
What would have been the reaction of Indians if the shoe thrown by Jarnail Singh at Home Minister P Chidambaram had actually hit his face?


Sympathy is a sentiment best measured by mercury. A little shake of the thermometer and it can shoot off in either direction. Jarnail Singh did himself a great favour by missing. If the shoe had hit the Home Minister smack in the face, who knows, he may have shared some sympathy.


The errant shoe did far more damage than an accurate one might have done. It served Indian sentiment to a nicety, by delivering a sharp message without causing physical damage. Singh claims that he had never meant to hit the Home Minister in any case, but I am not too sure that he was in control of his actions when he suddenly spurted into the national limelight and Sikh lore. It was an involuntary gesture sparked by a deep, traumatic pain, a signal that the human spirit would not be defeated even when the hopelessness of an individual confronted a massive and even insolent cover-up by authority.


It would be a mistake to assume that this pain has only to do with the sight of two Congress candidates from Delhi who are believed to have been agent provocateurs during the three days of massacre in 1984. What is truly astonishing is the fact that not a single person has been convicted in twenty-five years. The 1984 mayhem took place in full public view. But the police could not find any witness. The obvious explanation is that beneficiaries of the anti-Sikh riots were in power between 1984 and 1999. VP Singh, who became Prime Minister in 1989, was a Cabinet Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Government, and among his close confidants was Mr Arun Nehru, who, according to his detractors, is alleged to have encouraged the rioting with a wink if not a nod. Chandra Shekhar, who toppled VP Singh, survived for a few months only with Rajiv Gandhi’s support. PV Narasimha Rao, who got his dream job in 1991, was Home Minister during the Sikh riots, and therefore directly responsible. The two Prime Ministers who succeeded him, Mr HD Deve Gowda and Mr Inder Kumar Gujral, were also in power with Congress support. Jagdish Tytler, incidentally, is right when he wonders why the man who was Home Minister while Sikhs were being killed at his doorstep (literally) was never considered unworthy of being Prime Minister. 


That takes care of the first 15 years. The NDA Government went through the motions, but either could not, or did not want to, prod the police too hard. The police were safe in their stagnation once the Congress returned to power in 2004. The most important reason for their indifference was that the killings could not have taken place without the active collusion of the police, from constable to officer. Constables on duty literally directed mobs towards Sikh homes and localities in Delhi. Public pressure has ensured that there is some accountability for the Gujarat riots. There has been absolutely none for the Sikh riots, because the system collaborated with politicians to protect the guilty.


When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty. Sikhs have had to live with this harsh fact. They had begun to come to terms with it. Many of them voted for the Congress in 2004 and 2008. Jagdish Tytler was elected in 2004. Has the shoe ignited an old wound that might be forgotten but will never heal? The answers, as usual, are more difficult than questions. But this much is certain: The Akalis, who looked dead in the water, have suddenly revived in Punjab. Momentum is a decisive asset in electoral politics. 


One problem with sympathy is sustenance. Rajiv Gandhi came to power in the election after the riots with the most decisive mandate in electoral history. His victory was routinely attributed to a ‘sympathy wave’. The voter simply eliminated the Sikh massacre from his consciousness, or even condoned it as the inevitable upsurge of anger after the assassination of a national icon, Mrs Indira Gandhi. But once Rajiv Gandhi won, the sympathy evaporated all too quickly. The electorate switched, as if it had paid its dues. The Congress began losing Assembly elections long before Bofors became a drumbeat and then a cacophony (one of the principal conductors of the cacophony was the Speaker of the last Lok Sabha, Mr Somnath Chatterjee).


The Indian voter is a tough bird. He knows his vote can turn an underdog into an overdog, but then waits to find out whether the overdog has become overbearing.


There is only one underdog in the 2009 election: Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh. Conventional wisdom, of which we journalists are the unparalleled masters, places him a poor third in the results’ chart. But those who have seen the crowds swell with pride in his wake as he campaigns do not believe that they have witnessed a complete illusion. He doesn’t have to rent any crowd; people wait for hours in the blazing sun to see him pass. There is something happening which the beady, sceptical and perhaps even septic eye of the worldly wise cannot quite fathom.


Let us merely say that Chiranjeevi is one politician in the current mélange who need not be worried about a shoe hurtling in his direction at a Press conference. It is noteworthy that some superstar politicians have already increased the distance between their dais and the first row of journalists. They used to dread the pen once. But so many pens have now been purchased that the only dread left is the shoe. The pen was generally considered mightier than the sword; the shoe is very definitely mightier than the pen.


In Britain, no election is complete without a politician being hit by an egg or a pudding on the campaign trail. But that would be passé. Eggs are a bit jokey. The shoe is evocative of thousands of years of popular justice, since it has been used to beat the errant. It projects an intended element of humiliation. The shoe is essentially a non-violent weapon, and we Indians love to believe that we are non-violent. Is throwing a shoe libellous? This could turn out to be a lucrative debate. 


I wonder if fresh instructions have already been issued to the elite VIP security squads, and there is now a posse trained to pick the slightest movement of a journalist’s arm towards a shoe at a Press conference. No more bending, ladies and gentlemen of the Press. You can kowtow of course, for that is what the high and mighty expect, but keep your hands in your laps, please.


-- _MJ Akbar is chairman of the fortnightly news magazine *Covert*._


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## kds1980 (Apr 14, 2009)

Jarnail singh with Family


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## spnadmin (Apr 14, 2009)

That is one beautiful family!


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Apr 14, 2009)

YES aad Ji..how right you are.  Absolutley Beautiful Family...RADIANT !!


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