As footwear becomes the weapon of choice against political leaders, a jeweller in Mumbai’s suburb of Bandra has put up a banner that proclaims: a shoe is the best way to teach corrupt politicians a lesson. “The throwing of the shoe at leaders just shows how bad the conditions are and how frustrated people are with their leaders. The shoe should not be used as a weapon but as a tool to puncture the ego of leaders,” Kishore Valchand Jain said.
“It lets leaders know about what has gone wrong in society. What other tool does a common man have to show his frustration?” Jain said.
Jain has been putting up banners with social messages for the last 10 years outside his store and changes them every fortnight.
The current banner in Hindi proclaims “Shoe: The weapon of the ordinary man. A weapon to teach a lesson to corrupt leaders, your own shoe!” However, he said targeting the PM was wrong as the student had done it for publicity.