BJP condemns shoe attack on Chidambaram

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday condemned a journalist's shoe attack against Home Minister P Chidambaram but also advised the Congress to withdraw the Lok Sabha candidatures of its riot tainted leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.

"The BJP condemns any incident which is uncivilised or any language which goes against the basic ethos of India. But the Congress party should learn from what has happened today," said BJP spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh.

"There is anguish among the Sikhs and the Punjabi community in India due to the treatment meted out to them. The way the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been used by the Congress to free Jagdish Tytler, the anger will grow."

The BJP, he suggested, should "immediately withdraw the candidature of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar".

"Action is condemned and not the feeling," the spokesman said. "In democracy you are allowed to raise an issue and you may have a difference of opinion, but the action is not welcomed."

Upset with the the CBI's clean chit to Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, Delhi journalist Jarnail Singh from Dainik Jagran flung a shoe at Chidambaram at his press conference on Tuesday.