Dear readers,A shoe here, a slap there—politicians run such risks everywhere. Perhaps more so in India, and most of all in Delhi.The slap is usually delivered in settings where the politician expects only applause. In 2014, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was slapped by a youth frustrated over not finding a job. The same year, in Bulandshahr, Hema Malini had shoes hurled at her when she refused to dance to a number from Sholay. Clearly, the supporter failed to realise that he was no Gabbar Singh to make a song-and-dance about anything.The latest slap-gate incident took place on August 20 when Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was attacked during a public grievance hearing at her Civil Lines residence. Early reports said she had been slapped, a version repeated by a self-proclaimed eyewitness in a news clip. Whatever the exact nature of the attack, the fact is that Gupta has been in office only for a few months, she belongs to the ubiquitous ruling party, and it is really too soon for anti-incumbency or long-term unpopularity to have set in.The slapper is one Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakariya of Rajkot, Gujarat, who apparently travelled all the way to Delhi to protest the Supreme Court’s order on stray dogs. The 41-year-old auto-driver hardly fits the stereotype of an impetuous youth. His mother has said her son is a dog-lover, mentally unstable, and prone to rages. Sakariya is in custody, the Chief Minister has been given Z Category security, and Delhi’s Police Commissioner S.B.K. Singh has been replaced by Satish Golcha.Social media, unsparing as ever, dredged up an old video of BJP MP Manoj Tiwari asking whether an earlier incident of Arvind Kejriwal being slapped was staged by Kejriwal himself. Predictably, the same insinuation has surfaced this time.Indeed, Delhi has seen more than its share of such incidents. Kejriwal was slapped twice, in 2014 and 2019, during roadshows at Sultanpuri and later Moti Nagar. Other AAP leaders—Sanjay Singh, Dinesh Mohaniya, and Akhilesh Pati Tripathi—also faced assaults between 2014 and 2017, over disputes ranging from corruption charges in ticket distribution to the alleged hand of the water mafia. In Lalbagh in 2015, Tripathi was hospitalised after an attack.In 2024, the Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar was slapped and splashed with ink by two men in North East Delhi. In 2011, and this time in Mumbai, the (then undivided) Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who was then Union Agriculture Minister, was slapped by one Harvinder Singh, who claimed that Pawar symbolised price rise and corruption. Singh declared he would do it again and was subsequently linked to a similar assault on former Telecom Minister Sukhram.The incident gained notoriety less for the slap than for the reaction it provoked when the pious Anna Hazare asked why politicians, who ignore police violence on farmers, were so incensed by “one slap”.In June 2025, at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, Mahendra Rajbhar, national president of the Suheldev Swabhiman Party, was slapped multiple times by a party worker shortly after he had garlanded Rajbhar. The assailant claimed that the party leaders were serving family interests rather than the community. In June 2024, at Chandigarh airport, Central Industrial Security Force constable Kulwinder Kaur allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, furious at her off-colour remarks about the farmer protests that were raging then. Kaur’s mother was among the demonstrators Ranaut had derided as being “paid Rs.100” to sit at the protest. The constable was suspended.What makes citizens so furious that they are willing to risk their liberty for the satisfaction of having their palm land on the cheek of a politician? Is it the sheer frustration of knowing that politicians get away with anything and are seemingly beyond the pale of accountability? Or is it satisfaction at the gaping power difference they bridge during that one moment of madness? Because even the most important person in the world, the POTUS (President of the United States), has not been immune to citizen fury. In December 2008, a journalist threw his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference.In fact, the Turkey-based policy expert Attila Ilman wrote an essay titled “Why Do People Hate Politicians?”, where he said that less than 9 per cent of people worldwide hold politicians in high regard.Is this hate of politicians healthy? Or is it a sign of the emerging cracks in democratic institutions the world over that are making people rage more and more?Write in and let us know what you think.Until the next newsletter,Anand Mishra | Political Editor, FrontlineWe hope you’ve been enjoying our newsletters featuring a selection of articles that we believe will be of interest to a cross-section of our readers. Tell us if you like what you read. And also, what you don’t like! Mail us at frontline@thehindu.co.inCONTRIBUTE YOUR COMMENTS