Lessons from a shoe

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Jairnal Singh's throwing a shoe at Chidambaram has raised too many issues.

Media ethics, anti-Sikh riots. Almost every media house and politician has blamed this act of the journalist.

Politicians didn't like it but the way they put their views forward, (BJP and SP) proves that they are trying to gain political mileage. Almost everyone said that they condemn this act of Jairnal Singh, but also linked it to the emotions of 1984 Sikh Riot victims. Everyone knew that condemning Jarnail Singh alone might cost them Sikh votes given that the election is only about a month away.

This issue has once again raised the spectre of 1984 riots for Congress, and more specifically, for Jagdish Tytler who has not only got a clean chit from CBI, but also has ticket to to the polls. Now this incident has forced the Congress to reconsider the decision of giving ticket to the main accused of 84 riots. Did the Congress play it wrong by allowing Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to contest?

I think so.

Congress says that the CBI has given Tytler a clean chit and it's up to the Supreme Court to give its verdict. If this is so then why did they give him a ticket before the Supreme Court could deliver its decision? The Congress could surely have waited for some more time. Now they must be in a dilemma about whether to allow Tytler to contest or not.

Most of the Sikh leaders in the party have suggested not allowing Tytler to contest as it may cost them Sikh votes. If Congress asks Tytler to withdraw then it might save the game but will be under fire for having given him a ticket without further preview. One thing is for sure. This incident has made a deep impact on the political career of Tytler. But somewhere a message has been sent to him that he can not get away easily for what he has done to get the political mileage some years back.

Why only him? It is high time that the BJP should a take a lesson from this incident. In the future the Godhra riots and Ayodhya issues might face this same systemic backlash. It's high time political parties stopped playing politics on sensitive issues that bring their humanity into questions.