Congress, BJP trade barbs after shoe hurled at Rahul Gandhi

Sitapur attacker arrested.

As the Congress Kisan Yatra started from Lucknow, a shoe was thrown at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday during his roadshow in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. The shoe narrowly missed the Congress leader, who was riding in an open-top vehicle when the incident occurred, and the attacker was arrested.

Mr Gandhi initially ignored the incident and kept waving to the crowds, but it later turned into a full-blown political tussle involving the Congress on one side and the BJP-RSS on the other. Mr Gandhi said: “I will keep fighting against such forces, I only have love to offer while other forces have only hatred to offer.”

Congress spokesman Abhishek “Manu” Singhvi said that “if anybody in the BJP-RSS or any so-called organisations think they can slow down or deter Rahul Gandhi by such cheap gutter-level tactics, let me tell them he is not going to be deterred”.

The BJP condemned the incident, and said in a democracy everyone had the right to dissent but such an act had no place in democracy. Strongly objecting to Mr Gandhi’s remarks against it and the RSS, the BJP said the Congress leader’s remarks showed his “mental bankruptcy”. BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Mr Gandhi’s remarks indicated his “desperation” to be in the news as his yatra and the “khaat pe charcha” had failed to garner any publicity. In a dig at the Congress vice-president, the BJP said Mr Gandhi’s remarks were proof that he had got influenced by his “friend”, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and that he needed to consult a good doctor.

The arrested man, Hariom Misra, a resident of Shastri Nagar, claimed to be a TV news channel journalist and said to the police: “The Congress has left the country in the dumps in the past 60 years. I have been a journalist for two years and I know. What were they doing when they were in power This made me angry.”

UP Accredited Correspondents’ Committee chief Pranshu Misra strongly condemned the incident, and said that no genuine journalist would behave in such a manner. The committee has sought strict action against the offender.

Mr Gandhi began the second phase of his Kisan Yatra from Sitapur on Monday and will hold a “khat sabha” later in the evening in Lakhimpur. The Congress said it will ensure this incident is not easily forgotten in the yatra, and will extract complete political mileage out of it.