Lucknow slipper attack on Kejriwal

Jitendra Pathak after he attacked Kejriwal. Picture by Naeem Ansari Lucknow, Oct. 18: A youth threw a slipper at Arvind Kejriwal, a member of Anna Hazare’s team, in Lucknow this evening when he got out of his car to address a gathering. The attacker, Jitendra Pathak, advanced towards the car when Kejriwal had just got off near Jhulelal Park, the meeting venue, at 6.45pm and hurled the slipper. The footwear hit Kejriwal on the right shoulder and as he turned back to see what had happened, his supporters circled him. Police sources said Pathak was angry with the way Anna Hazare’s team “was misleading people over the corruption issue and politicising it”. Even as he was being taken away by the police, Pathak was heard shouting: “Yes, I hit Kejriwal with a shoe. I have no personal grudge to settle against him. I am angry and upset by the way Anna’s team is spreading misinformation about corruption in India and politicising it.” He yelled: “I am following their meetings everywhere. Kejriwal was in Banda on October 17. Did he say anything about corruption there? He did not. He was talking about the Hisar poll result.” Team Anna members, led by Kejriwal, have been organising rallies in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Assembly elections next year, the first of which was held in Banda on October 17. In Banda, Kejriwal had asked people not to vote for the Congress if the UPA government failed to table the Jan Lokpal bill in the winter session of Parliament. One such meeting was scheduled in Lucknow today. Around 250 people had come to hear Team Anna members speak. Not much is known about Pathak. The police said he is from Jalone district in central Uttar Pradesh. A senior Congress spokesperson, who refused to be identified, said the party had nothing to do with the attack. Nothing much could be known about the attacker except that he is from Jalone district of Uttar Pradesh and he is against Anna's crusade against corruption.The attackers political background is bein g investigated. The attacker, dressed in a yellow coloured kurta, was immediately overpowered by the volunteers of the India Against Corruption (IAC), a frontal organisation of Team Anna, and dragged out of the rally ground and kept inside a temple near the rally ground.. After hurling the shoe , Pathak had tried to escape but he was overpowered by IAC supporters of Kejriwal and showers of blows rained down on him.His shirt was torn .He gave up to the police soon. “The attack was abrupt and took the police unaware. The attacker said he hailed from Jalone district of Bundelkhand area in Uttar Pradesh.He has been taken into custody and is being interrogated”, said D.K. Thakur, DIG of Lucknow Meetings are scheduled next in Kanpur Unnao and seven other cities later this month.. The series of meeting on the eve of uttar Pradesh state poll appeared to have unsettled a section of Congress workers in the state. Congress leaders who are apprehensive of the impact that the Hissar by poll result would have on Uttar Pradesh were worried that Anna supporters would vitiate the voters against the party candidates . Although Pathak was voicing the sentiment of Congress leaders in the state, senior Congress leaders here refused to comment on this attack. A senior party spokesman who refused to be identified said Congress had nothing to do with this attack. Even as senior Team Anna leaders in Delhi went ballistic in condemning the attack from Delhi, the convenor of India Against Corruption (IAC) in uttar Pradesh who organised the meeting today in Lucknow began underplaying the attack. Sanjay Singh, convenor of IAC , told The Telegraph this evening, “Kejriwal has forgiven the man and requested the police to set him free. The attack incident is too small a development”. But Kiran Bedi demanded in delhi a “thorough probe into the incident” Attack on Kejriwal comes just six days after noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan was assaulted by three alleged supporter of Sriram Sena in his chamber inside the Supreme Court On Oct 12 for his alleged “controversial remarks on Kashmir” They tore his shirt and pinned him to the floor when he was in his chamber in the Supreme Court besides assaulting him. On oct 16 Kejriwal had claimed that he has been informed of threats against him and that his office may be attacked. Kejriwal had told a TV anchor that in the past two days, he was receiving a number of calls from friends who were telling” me that I may be attacked “ He however had said he himself didnot not receive any threatening calls or messages. ends.