Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi joined the elite club of world and Indian leaders on whom shoes had been hurled. A youth on Monday hurled a shoe at Manjhi at his Janata Darbar here. The youth, in his mid-twenties identified as Amritesh from Chhapra, missed his intended target and was immediately overpowered by the security staff and whisked out.
The leaders either hit or escaped by shoes include then US president George W Bush, former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and Asif Ali Zardari, former British PM Tony Blair, then PM Manmohan Singh, his cabinet colleague P Chidambaram and some former CMs, including Omar Abdullah and BS Yeddyurappa and also the BJP patriarch lK Advani.
Amritesh, whose father Umeshwar Singh is associated with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is unemployed and participates in public protests. But the provocation for throwing shoe at the CM could not be ascertained. He was standing in a queue before the CM behind five other petitioners then suddenly he took out one of his shoes and hurled at Manjhi which hit the target.
The action created sensation since it happened in the presence of top police officials, including Director General of Police PK Thakur and Patna SSP Jitendra Rana besides heavy security staff encircling the CM. The police pounced on the youth who was also shouting and was dragged out and taken to Secretariat police station where he was being interrogated.
Show thrower Amritesh, who has completed college education, was heard yelling that the janata darbar of the CM was a useless forum and public complaints were not addressed by the officials.
“I just felt something crossed close to my left hand and it fell down. I have absolutely no idea who was this man and what was his intention. The enquiry will reveal everything even if there was some political motive behind this act,” Manjhi told media.
SSP Rana termed the act of Amritesh as attention seeking by a frustrated person. The youth had come with no complaint. The police caught him even while he misbehaved with the security staff, he added.
JD(U) ally RJD condemned the ugly incident. State RJD president Ramchandra Purbe said it was an insult to the office of the CM. “It is also an attempt to humiliate a Chief Minister who belongs to Mahadalit society,” he said.
The BJP, while condemning the incident, however, said that this showed the public anger against the present Government. State BJP spokesperson Vinod Naraian Jha said public dissatisfaction with the Manjhi Government came to fore. But he added that Manjhi was a CM without any authority and as he himself confessed even his ministers are not cooperating with him.