Shoes thrown at others, Pawar first to be assaulted
Hitherto, prominent personalities have had footwear thrown at them but without contact being made. Union Agriculture Minister is the first dignitory to be assaulted.
Pawar was slapped by a turbaned Sikh man, Harvinder Singh, who also took out his kirpan when security guards tried to overpower him and whisk him away. He was later arrested. Here is a timeline of previous attacks:
April 7, 2009 - Hindi daily Dainik Jagran journalist Jarnail Singh, miffed at union Home Minister P.Chidambaram's refusal to discuss Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases, hurls his shoes at the minister at the Congress headquarters. The shoes missed the minister.
April 17, 2009 - A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker hurls his slipper at senior party leader Lal Krishna Advani in Madhya Pradesh, but missed the target.
April 28, 2009 - A slipper was thrown at then Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa at a BJP rally. The slipper landed far from the dais.
April 26, 2009 - A shoe was hurled at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during election campaign in Ahmedabad by a 21-year-old computer engineering student Hitesh Chauhan. The shoe fell way short of the target.
Aug 15, 2010 - Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was targeted when a suspended police constable, Abdulla Ahad Jaan, hurled a shoe at him during the Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar.
Feb 6, 2011 - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf was attacked by a man who threw a shoe at him as he was upset over the US detention of a Pakistani national.
March 24, 2011 - Yoga guru Baba Ramdev had a close shave when a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper Mitu Singh Rathore hurled his boot at him. Rathore was angered by Ramdev's long speech on corruption instead of a yoga demonstration at a camp in Nagpur.
April 26, 2011 - A former lawyer from Madhya Pradesh, Manoj Sharma, flung a slipper at the former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi inside the Patiala House court premises.
June 6, 2011 - A man posing as a journalist tried to attack Congress spokesman Janardan Dwivedi with his shoe at a press conference at the party headquarters.
Oct 12, 2011 - Senior lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan was bashed up by three youths in his Supreme Court chamber by members of right-wing outfits -- Inder Verma, Vishnu Gupta and Tejender Pal.
Oct 18, 2011 - A slipper was hurled at India Against Corruption leader, Arvind Kejriwal in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh by a youth named Jeetendra Pathak, 35. The slipper missed him narrowly.
