Shoes Shine in Rurva

Shoe after shoe missing its mark seems to have spawned a new, and rather unlikely, trend —training classes.

Shoe after shoe missing its mark seems to have spawned a new, and rather unlikely, trend —training classes. Anger over failed promises has spilled over to become the sport de etre for villagers of Rurva district in Kanpur. Villagers have erected an effigy of a politician in a white kurta-pajama, and collected an assortment of shoes and chappals to throw at it. And UP isn’t the only state where villagers are sharpening their aim, and collecting chappals. An Indore-based businessman, Rajesh Bidkar, has launched a ‘juta pheko’ campaign to train villagers in this unique art of getting back at politicians. Unlike Bhidkar’s attempts to get into the news clutching the coat-tails of the shoe controversy, the villagers in UP seem to be serious. Some 12,000 villagers of Rurwa, Machlikhera, Raipur and Banjari Dera have pledged to boycott the election and fire shoe missiles at any politician who visits their villages asking for votes. Will these shoe bites bring our limping democracy back on track?

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Kabeer Sharma