The mother and brother of Jarnail Singh, who hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, defended his action saying the journalist got "a bit aggressive" when his questions about the anti-Sikh riots were not properly heard.

Singh, who works with a leading Hindi daily, flung the shoe protesting against CBI's clean chit to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

"He (Jarnail) was trying to say something, but no attention was being paid to. That is why he got angry," his mother Naseeb Kaur said and insisted that "generally he never gets angry."

His brother Karnail Singh said nearly 30 years have passed after the 1984 riots but "no results have come".

"Naturally, the Sikh community is hurt about it. He was trying to put some questions, trying to get the minister listen to him. The court case and the decision is a different matter, but if a journalist does not have the right to question the minister... that is when he got a bit aggressive," he said.