Man hurls shoes at BJP leader during press conference

19/04/2019

NEW DELHI, Apr 18: A man hurled shoes at BJP leaders addressing a press conference at the party's headquarters here on Thursday and was detained by police.
The middle-aged person identified himself as Shakti Bhargava and claimed to be a doctor by profession, but he did not speak about the reason behind his action as he was being bundled out by BJP staff and security guards. The Delhi Police, which questioned him for several hours, said they were letting him off as no complaint was lodged against him.
Nothing incriminating was found against him and he just wanted to grab attention, they said, adding that he hails from Kanpur and is facing legal cases related to property and Income Tax.
The incident took place when a scheduled press conference of BJP leaders BhupendraYadav and G V L NarasimhaRao was on.
The person threw a shoe and flung another after stepping close to the dais when Rao was attacking the Congress, accusing it of "defaming" the Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism during its rule at the Centre in 2004-14.
It is an attempt by a "Congress-inspired" person but it will not deter the BJP, Rao said and carried on with his attack on opposition parties after being left momentarily surprised as one of the shoes brushed past him.
Though it is unclear if the person involved in the incident had any political motivation, shoe-throwing has often been a show of protest, political or otherwise, by people seeking to bring attention to themselves or their issues.
Jarnail Singh, then a journalist, had thrown a shoe towards the then Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram in 2009 to protest against the party's ticket to anti-Sikh riot case accused Sajjan Kumar, now convicted. Though he lost his job, Singh went on to become an MLA on aAamAadmi Party (AAP) ticket.
Political leaders cutting across party lines have been at the receiving end of show-throwers.
L K Advani, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar are among those targeted with shoes, which have more often than not missed their mark.
Some leaders have suffered much worse with the likes of Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and NCP chiefSharadPawar even slapped.
Delhi Police on Thursday said that the man who hurled a shoe at BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) MP and spokesperson GVL NarasimhaRao at a press conference earlier on Thursday was let off after a joint interrogation.
Police said, the motive of the man identified as Shakti Bhargava, was to "gain media's attention" and "nothing incriminating was found from him."
No complaint was received against him, police said.
A shoe was hurled at GVL Narasimha Rao today while he was addressing a media briefing.
Rao had a narrow escape as the shoe did not hit him.
At the time of the incident, the BJP spokesperson was talking about fielding SadhviPragya from Bhopal constituency and was criticising Congress for allegedly defaming Hindus. Rao termed the incident a "condemnable act" by a "Congress-inspired" person.
"This is yet another attempt by a Congress inspired person who comes in here to show the same kind of mentality. We won't get deterred by these criminal elements in society. We condemn this action," said Rao.
BJP general secretary BhupenderYadav was also present along with Rao when the incident happened.
Bhargava who hurled the shoe was immediately overpowered and pushed out of the media room, following which the press conference was suspended.

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