Cinderella man says it was people’s shoe

Saturday, 17/09/2016

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TARLOCHAN SINGH SOONDH, Congress MLA The shoe was from the victims of the Akali rule, the families of the boys who died of drug addiction and those who were crushed under Akali buses. I am getting calls even from abroad, saying ‘Teri jutti vich sarean da dard hai’ (your shoe carries the pain of all).

CHANDIGARH: Congress legislator Tarlochan Singh Soondh, who hurled his shoe at the treasury benches in the Vidhan Sabha two days ago, doesn’t regret it.

He claimed on Friday here that even some MLAs from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had called up to applaud him. Even the Punjab Vidhan Sabha secretariat has nothing to report officially on a follow-up action against him. “The shoe was from the people of Punjab, the victims of the Akali rule especially,” he said. “It was from the families of the boys who died of drug addiction and those who were crushed under Akali buses.”

“I am getting calls from abroad as well, saying ‘Teri jutti vich sarean da dard hai (your shoe carries the pain of all),” Soondh said. He met the Vidhan Sabha secretary on Thursday to get his shoe back but failed. “You all have seen Mittal (parliamentary affairs minister Madan Mohan Mittal) carrying my shoe,” he said. “Only he knows what he has done with it.”

He claims to have received comments on Facebook that he did “the right thing”.

VISITS DERA BALLAN

Soondh went to Dera Sach Khand Ballan, shrine of Guru Ravidas near Jalandhar, on Friday. He spent four hours there and also met dera chief Sant Niranjan Dass. “I took his blessings,” he confirmed.

The shoe he hurled during the pandemonium in the Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday missed revenue minister Bikranjit Singh Majithia narrowly. The Cinderella man, MLA from Banga (reserved) seat, removed his other shoe to avoid being caught when the marshals and agitated Akali legislators, like the Prince’s army in the fairytale, were hunting for the person whom it fits. SILENCE OF THE SPEAKER No senior official at the Vidhan Sabha has any clue about a follow-up action.

The shoe went missing after Mittal exhibited it before the media on Wednesday. Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal was also in doubt if it was still in his office. “It is, perhaps, kept there but I will have to check,” he responded. Any action? “I will see to it, as I have received applications from both sides (Soondh and the treasury benches),” he said. “No one heard any caste slur that Soondh claims was hurled at him during the melee in the House.” Soondh belongs to a Scheduled Caste.

“The entire Vidhan Sabha term is over now. What’s left to take action against?” the speaker said. Soondh had claimed that caste-ist remarks from Akali legislator Virsa Singh Valtoha had provoked him to hurl his shoe at the treasury benches.