08.02.07
Sorry Sanjay, But I wouldn’t cry for you!
The Special Court hearing the 1993 Blast case announced a six year rigorous jail term to the ageing star Sanjay Dutt and the media went on the overdrive, publishing and airing the views of those who thought that the judgment was too harsh on the actor.
I have no animosity against this man. He is the son of late Dutt Sahib and Nargisji, both great social workers and artistes of their times and among my list of all-time favourite people. But that is not a reason sufficient enough for me to sympathize with a man who has been sentenced to jail by a court that took all the time on the earth to arrive at the conclusion that the accused did commit a crime that warranted a sentence that he got.
The court must have arrived at this judgment without any bias against the accused. Even the actor is reported to have told the Judge that the latter was more than a family to him. So there is no question about the judgment being unfair or too harsh. After all the judge, by the admission of the accused himself, was “more than a family”!
Sanjay Dutt can’t also be let off because he has behaved in an exemplary manner for quite some time now. Why would you let go a man who once kept an illegal AK-56 and a 9 mm pistol in his house and hobnobbed with the mafia-types just because he has behaved well in public ever since he was caught with the guns?
The fact that more than 50 crore is involved with Sanjay Dutt’s future also doesn’t move me an inch. The producers whose films are half-complete have gambled foolishly and they must bear the brunt of signing up someone who was an under trial and was most likely to get a jail-term. The film producers have never been known for their prudence and commonsense.
Sanjay Dutt has led a charmed life till now. Born to two of the most revered actors of all times, he went to the best school that the money could send him to. Launched with much fanfare by a loving father,he didn’t sparkle at all but the entire film fraternity persevered with this young man who was one of the least talented actors, at least in his initial few years. He married a beautiful girl, couldn’t sustain the relationship, then got involved with even more beautiful girls and eventually became a big star in Bollywood. But how can a man who has had so many opportunities in life to be so careless, that he “innocently” bought an assault rifle without an arms license from a dubious source? And for what exact purpose did he buy that? No one seems to have answered this convincingly.
We Indians seem to be too gentle with our wayward film stars. We forget the Salman Khans and the Sanjay Dutts just because we are too much in awe of their stature on-screen.
We even quarrel with those who expose the wrongdoings of Amitabh Bachchan. An old man with a goatee who bribed/muscled his way to fudge the ill-kept revenue records to prove his credentials as a farmer so that he could buy more agricultural land at dirt cheap prices! The man who called politics a cesspool and left it only to then stay afloat in the shit-pool of his own misdeeds is the top icon of our country. What a shame, I say.
The wave of sympathy for the stars caught in one case or the other is symptomatic of the deep malaise in our society that thrives on hero-worshipping and senseless idolatry.
Let us give these cine icons a kick on their buttocks as vehemently as we blow kisses on them with abundant affection.
A rich and well-connected accused who was able to employ the best of lawyers has been jailed for 6 years for illegal possession of arms. This deserves space reserved for a small classified advertisement on page 2 of print media. This is not the news that should be the top story of our leading dailies and the top websites.
Let us stop focusing on small events and think of issues that deserve big time attention
Sudhir Bisht is a freelance writer. Reach him at sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com
Sartaj Kapoor said,
August 2, 2007 at 11:22 am
The law is same for all people.
Why should Sanjay Dutt be judged differently.
What about the other 100 people.. accussed. We don;t even care to know their names.
ramesh.m said,
August 2, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I agree law is above individual. now a days media is more focussing on these issues instead of much needed issues which are affecting the country just to improve their TRP ratings and circulation and financial benefits.
A. Venkatesh said,
August 2, 2007 at 7:09 pm
I only partially agree with the views. It is easy to say that law should be the same for everyone, yet when one of our own person is in such a situation we always have a way of sympathising with the person.
Let us not forget that he has served a prison term earlier. Also, lets not forget that it has taken 15 good years for justice to be done. Can we please recall that “Justice delayed is justice denied”. We are commenting only because of the media hype and that he is a star and we like seeing big people in the docks. Sanjay has had a turbulent past is well known, but commenting on his not being able to keep relationships and his other flicks has nothing to do with this judgement. For having honoured the laws for the time between his conditional release from the jail and the day of the judgement should not be overlooked and should be a reason enough for granting his request of probation.
Our politicians go scott free on many more serious counts, while here we are trying to see the fairness of the judgements. If poessessing illegal arms needs a punishment then most of the politicians and more than half of UP and Bihar should be in our jails.
For once lets leave the star status of Sanjay behind and just look at him as a person and check our police records as to how many criminals have violated their bail terms (many a times with the help of police) and are yet to be caught.
We have forgotten the classic case of Nadeem who is hiding in UK for avoiding arrest in the Gulshan Kumar case and we cannot do anything to bring him back. Sanjay could also have done such a thing and we would have slowly forgotten him. We are more guided by the status in airing our views on such issues rather that seeing it as any other trial and judgement case.
It is probably out of the fear that granting a probation to Sanjay would raise eyebrows and cause an uproar, has the judge given this judgement aftera a l…..o….n….g delay.
Sudhir Bisht said,
August 2, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I salute Mr Venkatesh for this most candid and valid comments
Paarth P. said,
August 4, 2007 at 12:22 am
1) Sanjay Dutt could have used both political and monetary influence.
2) He could have fled away.
3) “To err is human, to forgive divine”–come out of it people….
4) He will get out when he appeals at supreme court (in a few days).
vishal desai said,
August 8, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Supreme Court will decide his fate come this Friday. Though I believe prosecuting Sanjay has sent a strong message to the so called influential community within the film fraternity & outside who think they are above law. Mumbai bomb-blast was no joke, it shook entire nation. There’s more to Sanjay than just asking for & keeping AK-47’s, it has been well documented by investigating agencies that he was infact aware of the bombings well before. He was not a child when this happened. Yes he may have been reformed or whatever but does this make a case for him against what’s happened 14 years back. He ought to spend his time in jail what he deserves along with all who are prosecuted (even they’ve waited for 14 years !! ) if Sanjay is to be set free than probably set majority of others too.
O P Singh said,
August 8, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Well Done O!