The jeweller believes that the shoe should not be used as a weapon but as a tool to hurt the ego of leaders.
As footwear becomes the weapon of choice against political leaders across the country, a jeweller in suburban Bandra has put up a banner saying a shoe is the best tool to teach corrupt politicians a lesson.
"The throwing of the shoe at leaders just shows how bad conditions are and how frustrated people are with their leaders. The shoe should not be used as a weapon but as a tool to hurt the ego of leaders," Kishore Valchand Jain said.
"It lets leaders know about what has gone wrong in society. What other tool does a common man have to show his frustration?" Jain said.
Jain says he has been putting up banners with social messages against corruption and terrorism for the last 10 years outside his store and changes them every fortnight.
The current banner in Hindi proclaims "Shoe: The weapon of the ordinary man. A weapon to teach a lesson to corrupt leaders, your own shoe!"
"In the case of Jagdish Tytler it was only after the shoe was thrown that his candidature was withdrawn," he said.
Journalist Jarnail Singh had recently thrown a shoe at home minister PC Chidambaram following the Congress leader being cleared in the 1984 Sikh riots case.
"I do not believe in violence and it should be thrown at political leaders only if they are corrupt to send a message across," he said.
"Even if it does hit a corrupt leader it is not wrong, since it would do little beyond hurting his ego," Jain said.
However, he did not endorse yesterday's incident of a shoe being thrown at prime minister Manmohan Singh. Jain claimed the person did it purely for publicity.
"That was wrong," he said.
Jain said he was not supporting any political party for the upcoming elections.
The 'shoe banner' also isn't Jain's first foray into endorsing the use of shoes to stamp out corruption.
"I had earlier put up a banner which said that the shoe was the only tool to stamp out corruption and bring about a revolution in the country," he said.
Recently, shoes have been thrown at prime minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram, BJP's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani and MP Navin Jindal.
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