JOIN USDwivedi was busy replying to the questions of journalists, mostly related to police action against yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday midnight, when the man, identified as Sunil Kumar, came on the dais and waved a shoe at him in the full view of TV cameras. However, Dwivedi pushed it away.
Beaten up
In the meantime, the middle aged man was pulled away by an AICC staffer. Mediapersons present at the conference also pounced on the man, who was beaten up before being whisked away by the police. Hearing the news, Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh also rushed to the spot and joined the mob hitting the man.
Sunil Kumar, who was taken to Tughlaq Road police station, claimed that he is a teacher and worked with the Navsanchar Patrika, a magazine based in Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan as a part-time journalist. The magazine, however, said that he was not associated with it and the organisation had not issued him any identity card, using which he got entry into the hall.
Digvijaya Singhlater described the incident “shameful”, and alleged that the man had been sent by the Bharatiya Janata Party and it was evident from the party’s first reaction.
Dwivedi dubbed it as a pre-planned attack conducted at the behest of the RSS since he was to speak against Ramdev and his protest.
This is the second such incident that took place during Congress press conferences.
In April 7, 2009, Jarnail Singh, a journalist of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, 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, hurled his shoe at the minister.