A man hurled a pair of shoes at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik when he was addressing an election meeting in Bargarh district today, police said. The chief minister escaped unhurt but the footwear hit his personal security officer. The attacker was swiftly taken into custody by the security personnel, while Patnaik was escorted to safety. The incident took place at Khumbhari village in Bijepur Assembly constituency when Patnaik was addressing a meeting following a road show in Barpali.

This is not the first time that an Indian politician has been hurled a shoe or chappal at. The tradition of showing shoes to someone to humiliate is an old and oft- practiced method. If the aggressor is not happy with just humiliating the target, throwing the shoe or humble chappal is the ultimate act of venting ire. George Bush will forever be the poster boy for 'famous-people-who-got-shoes'.  On December 14, 2008, an Iraqi journalist named Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both his shoes at the then United States President George W. Bush during a press conference. Bush ducked and moved swiftly missing both the shoes. After this incident, politicians in India were also targeted and attacked by shoes. Following are the incidents:

1) P Chidambaram

Journalist Jarnail Singh threw a shoe at P Chidambaram who was the home minister in 2009. Jarnail Singh later said that he was disturbed by CBI giving a clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the 1984 Sikh riots. This incident had got wide publicity and brought shoes back into Indian protests.

2) L K Advani 

The incident did not stop with P Chidambaram. Senior BJP leader L K Advani was not spared the 'boot' either. According to what was reported, a former and disgruntled BJP office bearer hurled a wooden slipper, or ‘khadaun’ at L K Advani who was also the prime ministerial candidate for BJP in the 2009 general elections.

3) Rahul Gandhi

On September 26, 2016, Rahul Gandhi was on a road show in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. A man named Hari Om Mishra hurled a shoe at the Congress leader because he was angry with Rahul Gandhi holding a rally after Una attacks.

4) Arvind Kejriwal

On April 9, 2016, Arvind Kejriwal was attacked with a shoe by a former political activist. Kejriwal was on a road show announcing the odd even scheme then. The shoe thrower, Ved Prakash Sharma was part of a breakaway faction of the Aam Aadmi Party.

So this shows that throwing shoes is quite a common act of protest. What is to be noticed is that it is almost always the politicians who are at the receiving end of it. Whatever the motive, hurling shoes seem to be an act of making oneself heard and reaching the distant politician in a violent way who otherwise is always elusive.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 21, 2018 11:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).