Slapgate and Bootgate

There have been many instances when political leaders have been attacked from gathering. Let us see few such incidents which happened worldwide and in India.

United States President George W. Bush

December 14, 2008, during a press conference at the prime minister's palace in Baghdad, Iraq, an Iraqi reporter, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at the United States President George W. Bush. The throwing of shoes is an act of extreme disrespect in the Arab culture. "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog," yelled al-Zaidi in Arabic as he threw his first shoe towards Bush. "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq," he shouted as he threw his second shoe. Bush ducked twice to avoid being hit by the shoes. Prime Minister Maliki also attempted to catch one of the shoes to protect Bush. Al-Zaidi was pulled to the floor by another journalist, before being grabbed by Prime Minister Maliki's guards, kicked, and rushed out of the room. When later asked to reflect on the incident, Bush said, "I didn't have much time to reflect on anything, I was ducking and dodging. I'm not angry with the system. I believe that a free society is emerging, and a free society is necessary for our own security and peace."

On February 20, 2009, al-Zaidi received a 90-minute trial by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. On March 12, 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit. On April 7, the sentence was reduced from three years to one year. He was released on 15 September 2009 for good behaviour, after serving nine months of the sentence.

United States President Barack Obama

10 October 2010, it astonished everyonewhen a book was apparently hurled at the head of President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.The flying missile narrowly missed hitting the President. It is not clear what the book was, where it came from in the crowd, or why it was thrown at Mr Obama - who did not appear to notice the danger.The rally was an eventful one –Police arrested a naked man and was led away in handcuffs. It is not clear if the man was involved in the book-throwing incident - or why he was not wearing any clothes.

Hillary Clinton

April 2014,an unidentified young woman threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton, who was speaking at a conference about scrap recycling. Hillary ducked out of the way, and joked about it later, saying, "My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial... Thank goodness she didn't play softball!"

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

February 2014, the Chief Minister of Haryana was slapped by an unemployed youth named Kamal Mukhija. Kamal wanted to express his frustration over not being able to find a job in the state. Bhupinder was seen giving angry instructions to his security personnel after the incident.

Sharad Yadav

November 2011, the JD(U) member was slapped due to the price rise issue by a local transporter named Harvinder Singh, who said that he had come to the event to slap the politician, who he thought was corrupt. Sharad chose to play down the incident.

P Chidambaram

April 2009, a Sikh journalist named Jarnail Singh hurled a shoe at Chidambaram at a press conference when the finance minister refused to answer the journalist's question. The minister ducked and carried on with the press conference after seeing Jarnail out of the room. Incidentally, Jarnail contested the Lok Sabha elections on an AAP ticket in 2014.

Sharad Pawar

November 2011, Harvinder Singh, a resident of Rohini in the capital, slapped the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in full glare of TV cameras.The miscreant, who even attempted to slash his wrists, was taken into custody immediately. He was citing rising prices as the reason for his anger.

Arvind Kejriwal

April 2014, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP, was slapped by an auto-rickshaw driver while campaigning in Sultanpuri, north-west Delhi. He was later seen sitting at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat with a swollen left eye.Mr Kejriwal was in an open jeep when a man in a blue shirt reached up and first garlanded the AAP chief and then struck him hard on his left cheek. The attacker was immediately tackled to the ground by AAP supporters; he was hospitalised after being beaten up by them."I forgive those who attack me. Assault me as much as you want, I won't retaliate. I appeal to volunteers not to retaliate, otherwise there is no difference between us and them," Mr Kejriwal said later, insisting that he still doesn't want security. That was the second time that Mr Kejriwal was attacked in a week. He earlier also had ink, mobil oil and even an egg hurled at him.

Jiten Ram Manjhi

January 2015, a youth hurled slipper at Bihar Chief Minister during a ‘Janta Durbar’ function at Patna. The youth was immediately intercepted by the police and was escorted out of ‘Janta Durbar’. He was arrested.

Avishek Banerjee

January 2015, Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee was slapped and punched by a man at a public meeting in West Bengal's East Midnapore district on Sunday afternoon. The man was later identified as Debashish Acharya, a resident of Tamluk in East Midnapore. Mr Banerjee was slapped while he was on stage at the meeting that was being held in Chandipur in East Midnapore district.
Mr Acharya was then beaten up by Trinamool workers and has been admitted to a local hospital. 

The entire event of Abhishek Banerjee went on air immediately and sends shock wave amongst the Trinamool Supporters. But what we saw later sent shockwave amongst all. Acharya was mercilessly beaten by TMC rank holders who were on the stage. He was beaten with sticks, bamboos, legs of plastic table. The supporters went mad and had beaten its own MLA from Chandipur who tried to save Acharya. Media person were attacked and hospitalised when they tried to shoot the savagely beating of Acharya. Police tried to control the situation and even the SDPO was badly beaten up and the nearby police station was ransacked by TMC supporters. Acharya was severely injured and admitted to hospital. Later Banerjee said that he forgave Acharya, but he was booked in a non-bailable section of attempt to murder.

If you compare all the previous leaders, stated above, with Abhishek Banerjee, the others are of much bigger political stature than Banerjee but the fate of the miscreant who slapped or hurled shoe, in this case is the worst. Is it because Banerjee is Mamata Banerjee’s nephew? Or is it because of unruly TMC supporters? Or TMC leadership has lost control over its supporters? Or lack of leadership which supporters love to follow? We are yet to get answer to this question. Probably we will get the answer in 2016.