National Talent Laid Waste

Indians have thrown half of all the shoes that have been flung at politicians in the world, and missed every time

Isn’t it about time someone threw a shoe and actually landed it? Four shoes have already been thrown, including Jarnail Singh’s underarm flick, and a dozen odd were flung at an independent candidate Dada Pehelwan in Buxar district of Bihar. Each one missed.

But the shoe-gates raise an issue bigger than how angry the common man is at the politician or in Arundhati Roy’s case, authors. It raises a bigger issue: of aim, rather the lack of it.

Barely a year after Abhinav Bindra won an Olympic gold in shooting, Indians continue to demonstrate over and over again that in a nation of 1.17 billion not one guy can throw a shoe at a politician and actually connect.

There is a deep equation between shoe flinging and Olympic shooting and archery medals. Try on some figures for size. Of all the shoes that have been flung so far, the one flung by a Ukranian TV reporter at a Ukranian politician and another one flung at the Israeli ambassador to Sweden were the only ones that actually found their mark. Ukraine pocketed three shooting medals (two golds and a silver) at the Beijing Olympics and one gold in archery—clearly the skill extends to common projectiles too. The nationality of the shoe that hit the Israeli ambassador still isn’t clear.

For the record—the Chinese did win more medals than anyone else, but maybe because of Internet restrictions they are yet unaware of this new sport. As far as the Americans are concerned, let’s face it, they really can’t really afford to throw much at anyone anymore. Muntadar al-Zaidi may have become a hero. But he missed and Iraq has not won a shooting medal ever.

But coming back to India—it really is an embarrassment. We’ve flung half of the total number of reported shoes in the world, and missed each and every time. It’s a land where most women have thrown at least one chappal at an eve teaser, husband or boyfriend; and every protestor worth his cause has hurled at least one shoe garland on at least one effigy.

The retired teacher who flung his shoe at Congress MP Naveen Jindal, himself a skilled shooter, was said to be drunk when he threw the shoe. What is not clear is whether he missed because he was drunk, or his being drunk was the reason he flung the shoe.

The slipper thrown at Arundhati Roy for her views on Pakistan too missed the target, partly because a shoe would have been more aerodynamic and partly because we Indians have bad aim—plain and simple. It’s embarrassing that a rising superpower like India can’t produce one good shoe flinger… especially if we are going to proactively pursue a sport. Maybe it’s time to bring in a foreign coach.

medalsOlympicspoliticiansshoes throwing