Finally, it was chief minister Omer Abdullah’s Jadu Ki Jappi that seemed to do the trick, till, in a dramatic turn of events, the news of Ahad Jan’s resignation came in. Ahad Jan who overnight had become “Teri Jaan, Meri Jaan” was shorn of the political persona he had suddenly acquired by chucking shoe at the Abdullah during August 15 parade after he was seen sobbing, and repenting before Abdullah. He was released, but back home he again sounded like a rebel. He was an ordinary mortal before he turned into a hero. Then he recoiled into his ordinariness before doing the heroics once more.

By the evening he was seen as a repentant soul confessing before Omar himself, it turned out that Jan, a head constable himself, nursed a deep grievance against the police department. He felt denied of the promised promotion and the other service benefits by his officers. More so, when he thought he had done a commendable work to deserve this, like escorting senior police functionaries to safety during the blast at a security meeting in early nineties. Hence, Jan now said his shoe was actually aimed at Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda rather than the Chief Minister. And there was that woeful sight - not in any way appealing to his overnight heavyweight political supporters - of Jan sobbing inconsolably with Abdullah’s right hand on his shoulder, a scene that seemed a straight lift from the movie Munnabhai MBBS. Suddenly a soft touch had melted the public conception of Jan as an ethereal representation of the Azadi sentiment. He tragically shrunk back to the ordinary human condition of an aggrieved government employee, who had his small demands and cries too. However, Ahad Jan’s two day fame stood as a metaphor for today’s Kashmir. In a scenario where stones fly around thick and fast as an expression of the overwhelming rage on the street, Jan’s shoe seemed to take the protest to a new level. More so, when he followed his act with that ultimate cry of Kashmiri protest, we want freedom. This gave his shoe-throwing an overarching political context and placed it right into the heart of the current turmoil. It was also cathartic in many respects. In his native village at Ajas excited people swarmed his home. Teri Jan Meri Jan, Ahad Jan Ahad Jan, became a new rallying cry. Leading separatist politicians chipped in with their own complimentary messages. In a situation where there is little agreement on one true leader for the ongoing protests, Ahad Jan was hailed as a unanimous hero. What made him even more relevant to the situation was that he was a police man. In an environment where there is a tense stand-off between police and the people, creating a wide gulf in the process, Jan for once seemed to act as a bridge. It showed to the stone throwing youth that there was an echo of their sentiment in a police man’s heart. A police man perturbed by the ongoing disturbance and the killings by equal measure. Besides, shoe-throwing became an advertisement for the two and a half month long fresh Azadi groundswell. Giving it even bigger dimension was the incident’s headline-grabbing potential deriving from its sensational previous precedents like the hurling of shoe at the former US president George Bush or president Zardari or for that matter at the union home minister P Chidambaram.

Though for a while Abdullah’s decision to release Jan on ‘compassionate’ grounds had restored the status quo, and the irreconcilable distinction between the police and the angry youth was back. But when it seemed that government had the last laugh, Jan’s resignation came later than the last. If Abdullah’s act tried to undo the making of a potent political symbol just when it had passed through its formative stages and become a finished product, Jan’s resignation has come as a thundering salvo, back towards the original target of the shoe. Whatever his individual motivations, the overarching political context of the Jan’s shoe-throw will never go away. More so, when this is how the act has been understood and translated in media and of course in popular imagination. And one more point that Jan’s shoe has beaten home is this; political symbols change their meanings overnight in Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST