Author: Ashok Malik
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 7, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/154769/Whose-candidate-is-Sanjay-Dutt.html
In nominating movie star Sanjay Dutt as its
Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party has by all accounts
taken its rivals by surprise. As is well known, Dutt was implicated in the
Mumbai bombings case of 1993. A special court has convicted him under the
Arms Act for procuring AK-56 rifles from members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang
that masterminded the explosions in downtown Mumbai, killing over 250 people.
The police case against Dutt was that, in
return for the assault rifles, he allowed Dawood's men use of his garage to
dismantle the car in which the explosives and other weaponry for executing
the attack had been hidden. The munitions had been sourced from Pakistan and
been driven to Mumbai hidden in the cavity of the car.
Dutt's adherents have pointed out that the
actor -- who was just short of 34 when the Mumbai bombings took place and
scarcely a naïve, impressionable teenager -- was stupid and in awe of
the underworld but not a terrorist. With a half-Muslim background, he was
fearful after the religious violence of December 1992 and January 1993 and
felt he needed assault rifles, pistols and hand grenades to protect his family.
That aside, the actor's friends say, he may
not have known what the explosives that were stored in his garage were meant
for. His meetings with Dawood Ibrahim and Iqbal Mirchi and his proximity to
Anees Ibrahim (Dawood's brother) and Abu Salem -- all of which were part of
the prosecution's evidence against Dutt in the special court -- are explained
away as innocent adventurism.
The actor has no other criminal record, it
is said. He must be judged by the standards of his parents -- both Nargis
and Sunil Dutt were distinguished citizens. The junior Dutt's rehabilitation
should, therefore, be welcomed and promoted.
All this is no secret. Even so, his formal
entry into politics was unexpected. When his father was alive -- Sunil Dutt
passed away in 2005 -- Sanjay Dutt had told family friends he had no desire
to enter politics and would rather "clear my name". So what has
changed in the past few weeks?
It is here that the story gets mysterious
and acquires potentially ominous implications. At one level, the SP is hoping
to use Sanjay Dutt as its mascot in mobilising Muslim votes all over Uttar
Pradesh. It is undeniable that there is sympathy for the actor in the community,
particularly among restive, radicalised youth.
Dutt's friend Abu Salem is a folk hero of
sorts in his native Azamgarh -- a district in eastern Uttar Pradesh that has
been in the news for its links with many 'Indian Mujahideen' terrorists. Salem
is often spoken of as a possible political godfather himself.
However, this is not all there is to Dutt's
political debut. Insiders say the actor was prevailed upon to agree to the
Lucknow candidacy by his recently-wedded wife. A pushy, ambitious woman, the
new Mrs Dutt has been keen and vocal on her husband taking on a higher public
profile. It is an issue that has ruptured relationships within the Dutt family
and, Mumbai sources suggest, also distanced Sanjay Dutt from some of his close
friends.
Being a convict -- though out on bail while
his appeal is being heard by the Supreme Court -- Sanjay Dutt's nomination
papers are unlikely to be accepted by the Election Commission, lawyers suggest.
In that situation, Mr Amar Singh, SP general secretary, has announced that
Ms Manyata Dutt will stand in for her husband and contest the Lok Sabha election.
Consider the situation. Sanjay Dutt, good,
bad or indifferent, is a public figure. His life, family credentials, successes
and failures are known to the people, to voters and to India. Whether he is
a suitable candidate for Parliament may be another matter, but his personal
history is in the public domain.
Nobody knows who Ms Manyata Dutt is. She has
emerged from nowhere in recent months as, first, Sanjay Dutt's girlfriend
and then his wife. Her background, origins, political and social views and
affiliations, if any, are completely unknown. Just who is she? There is no
answer.
Yet, with help from a sympathetic political
party, she has manoeuvred her way to a possible electoral candidacy and, backed
by denominational support gathered using her husband's name, hopes to enter
India's Parliament! Is this coincidence or some far-reaching conspiracy? Can
one be blamed for wondering?
There is one more uneasy factor. Sanjay Dutt's
transactional relationship with the Mumbai underworld was not limited to the
1993 bombings.
In Maximum City, his massive biography of
Mumbai, writer Suketu Mehta recounts an extortion threat received by film-maker
Vinod Chopra: "The first call comes to Vinod's production office ...
His accountant picks up. The caller asks for Vinod; the accountant says he
is on the set. 'Tell him to call Abu Salem.' And a phone number is left. By
evening, another phone call comes. 'Why hasn't he called? We'll blow his head
off'."
As Mehta writes, Chopra "starts making
calls", even reaching out to the then Union Home Minister, Mr LK Advani:
"In short order, Vinod has a commando sitting in his car, a jeepful of
armed policemen following him." A day later, the matter has been "sorted
out": "He (Chopra) received another call saying, 'You are like our
brother'. Some string was pulled somewhere."
The saviour turns out to be Sanjay Dutt: "Salem
was a batchmate of Sanjay's in the bomb-blasts case ... Sanjay had called
up his old colleague and reminded him, 'I've spent two years in jail for you.
Vinod is like my brother'." The threat was called off. Chopra was then
making Mission Kashmir with Dutt. Maximum City assesses this in retrospect:
"Vinod has been extraordinary lucky in his casting choices. Signing Sanjay
Dutt has turned out to be ... fortuitous."
Sanjay Dutt may well be an angst-ridden, misguided
soul. Yet, he has friends who run extortion and blackmail rackets. Is he a
bystander or is he a victim of these? Are criminal syndicates-turned-terror
groups seeking to 'place' him in the Lok Sabha? Until India is certain, it
cannot afford to have him, or his wife, contest elections.
- malikashok@gmail.com
