For Sanjay Dutt, life is a big bundle of 'if's'

The kindest thing one can say about the Bollywood star's predicament is: 'what a stupid boy'!

The kindest thing you can probably say about Sanjay Dutt’s grim predicament is: “what a stupid boy”!

Makes you think: life is all about ‘if’s. IF Sanjay Dutt hadn’t become jaded so early in life (that usually happens if you have everything and don’t really have to struggle for anything); IF he hadn’t gone shopping for a gun because it was the trendy thing to do at the time; IF the arms he possessed illegally had not been found with him…

It is nobody’s case, not even the Supreme Court’s that Dutt was in any way involved in the Mumbai bomb blasts conspiracy. But the Supreme Court has said that the charges against Sanjay Dutt ‘are serious’.

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Absolutely. The same act, which has put him in jail is responsible for the turnaround of Bihar! Think about it. It was the provisions of the Arms Act that were used by Nitish Kumar to catch those in illegal possession of weapons, solely on the testimony of a Station House Officer (SHO).

When kidnapping became an industry in Bihar, the state lost the battle against illegal weapons. So you could make quick money by brandishing an illegal weapon, bundle somebody in a car and don't release him until the family has paid ransom. Kumar used the Arms Act to unearth weapons, lock up those who had them and sent a signal to the society at large that if an illegal weapon was found on you, you were in danger of being sent away for a long, long time. It is considered a draconian act, but then consider how the application of the act increased India’s GDP by at least one percentage point!

You do feel sorry for Dutt. But if you do, you also ought to feel sorry for the hundreds of Muslim boys who continue to be in jail for crimes they didn’t commit; and those who were acquitted but after an extended period of incarceration. If Sanjay Dutt is pardoned,(the Governor has the right to pardon him, the ever helpful Justice Markandey Katju has told us) the right thing for an Indian to do would be to also apologise to all those who were accused and later acquitted, and were the unwitting victims of the law. They too were just stupid boys, after all.