Was a slipper thrown at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s car as it drove through the crowded streets of Varanasi? Or was it just an unidentified piece of flying litter that happened to land on the prime minister’s heavily guarded vehicle?
That’s the buzzing controversy doing the rounds after Modi’s first visit to his constituency after winning his election there. A brief video appears to show a security officer leaning across the bonnet and tossing away the object that had landed on it.
Modi was on his first visit to Varanasi after winning his election there for the third time, albeit with a sharply reduced majority.
Whatever the object, a question has now arisen about whether this was a massive security breach.
The Telegraph Online has not verified the authenticity of the video.
The incident, Varanasi residents said, happened while the PM’s convoy was headed from the Dashashvamedha Ghat to KV Mandir.
Around 19 seconds into the 1.41-minute video, a bystander is heard saying, “Chappal phenk ke maara [a slipper has been hurled]”, amidst chants of “Modi, Modi”.
In the video, the unidentified object landed on the bonnet of the vehicle in which the PM is thought to have been travelling.
Around five or six seconds later, a member of the PM’s security detail is seen stretching out his arm, retrieving the object and throwing it away.
A senior Uttar Pradesh police officer – who requested anonymity – said that a mobile phone, and not a slipper, had landed on the car. The officer described the incident as “unintentional”, meaning that the object was not hurled at the prime minister’s car deliberately. The officer did not explain how the phone had “unintentionally” landed on the heavily guarded SUV bonnet.
“As per security personnel present at the spot, the object that was thrown at PM was a mobile phone which was hurled at the carcade unintentionally from the bystanders. The incident happened when PM was moving from the [Ganga] ghat towards KV Mandir,” the officer told The Telegraph Online. He also didn’t indicate whether this was a serious security lapse.
Modi was in Varanasi on Tuesday where he released Rs. 20,000 crore in the 17th installment of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi to more than 9.26 crore farmers at the PM Kisan Samman Sammelan.
Modi won his third term from Varanasi with a margin of 1,52,513 votes, far below his 2019 victory margin of 4.8 lakh.
If the incident did happen, this would be the first instance of an object landing on his car. The prime minister has faced protests before and in some of his events black dresses were reportedly not allowed.
Across the world, several leaders big and small have faced projectiles hurled at them. In the UK, maverick rightwing leader Nigel Farage has had several objects thrown at him in recent weeks. Going back further in December 2008 Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi had hurled a shoe at the then visiting US president George W Bush during a joint press conference with Iraqi prime minister Mouri al-Maliki. Bush had managed to duck and avoid the shoe.
Closer to home, the late Jarnail Singh, a journalist-turned-AAP leader had hurled a shoe at then Union home minister P Chidambaram for allegedly defending the CBI’s exoneration of Jagadish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.