Lage Raho Munnabhai

The verdict is finally in. Munnabhai gets 6 years. Let's look at this in perspective.

Sanjay Dutt (SD) a confirmed drug addict buys a 9mm pistol illegally from Abu Salem of Lisbon fame. He then feels that he is still not protected enough so he asks his dear friend big D "not to be confused with Big B" for bigger and better guns.

Of course, Salim Hingora and Co land up the next day with their version of UPS overnight with a delivery of 3 AK56 rifles and 25 hand grenades. It seems they had a special, buy one get 2 FREE and the 25 hand grenades was a daily special. ( I wonder if Hingora and company asked Sanjay Dutt, would you like fries with it too ala Mc D)

I saw the poll on TV and would like to ask those large number of weepy people who are now voting for forgiving Sanjay Dutt to kindly explain to me how we can forgive someone for keeping not one but three rifles capable of firing up to 400 rounds of 7.62 mm ammo per minute which is devastatingly effective within 250 yards. Basically it would make chopped meat (keema) of anyone it was pointed at.

Let's understand who we're trying to forgive, its someone who kept an "ASSAULT RIFLE" for his "self protection" and then tried to get rid of it ,once he FOUND OUT that his name was being mentioned in an investigation.

NOTE: He didn't get rid of it as a matter of course, he only did when he thought he would get caught.

I wonder if he wasn't being investigated, would he have asked for a bazooka or an anti aircraft gun when he heard that Al Quaeda was attacking buildings using planes TO PROTECT himself and his family.

The problem is we treat all celebrities differently and I don't mean bad differently as some of the same weepy creepies are saying more but more like demi-gods. Today I read Queenie Dhondy a well known socialite as saying she and her husband Raj are good friends of SD and that he is a good person and should not received 6 years.

People like Ms. Queenie, should realise that a hopped up person flying on his fathers' celebrityhood does not a good gun owner make. I wonder if Queenie's tune would have been the same if SD had fired the two rounds into her or Raj like he did in the ceiling of his house in a hopped up rage one day.

Let me tell you two stories about SD from my personal experience which should show you how cocky and full of himself he was during that time. Both of these stories are 100% true.

Rocky was just released SD was basking in his own self ego. We were 10th standard students at a video game parlour which was the rage in those days. In walks in SD with 2 cronies just of their dirt bikes. They walk upto a machine where someone from our school was playing. He pushes the guy off the machine in the middle of the game and says don't you know who I am , move you @#$*&$. The guy fell on the floor with a bone breaking thud. Unfortunately for him, there were three of them and about 40 of us. He barely managed to escape with his life that day.

The second incident is more ominous. I had a souped up jalopy like almost every young college student does. SD had a brand new BMW plaything. We met side by side at a signal on Linking Road. I revved, he revved. Eyes met eyes, tires roared as soon as signal turned green. We were neck in neck for about a 100 yards, and when he saw that the chances of him pulling ahead was low, he pulled a gun and pointed it at me. Needless to say I braked and he shot ahead (pun unintended)

Of course the Ms. Queenies of this world will call it his reckless, drug induced phase. But then Alistair Perriera and his ilk are on their reckless alcohol induced phases and we should forgive them too. Just because 14 years have passed does not make it condonable , it just shows us the shitty state of our justice system.

Frankly, this whole farce has degenerated from a trial about the bloody 93 riots and blasts to a two bit actor and a gun.

The feelings of the people like the one mentioned in my earlier article are totally forgotten. their pain is forgotten.

Ask us , the people who were there at ground level and we will tell you that can never forgive the incidents that turned the city from one which only cared about money into one of communal hatred. We can never forgive the blood lust showed by one and all at that time.

Lastly , I think the issue can be summarised in words said by someone the other day to me "people are confusing Munnabhai with Sanjay Dutt the person and the person they want to forgive is a fictional character rather than the real one."

So if SD got only 6 years instead of more, he should consider himself lucky. But knowing his political connections my guess is that enough backs will be scratched and he will get out.

One co-incidence strikes me as obvious as it did a lot of political analysts at that time, after Sunil Dutt visited Bal Thakerey whose govt was in power in those days, Sanjay Dutt mysteriously got bail. Post that fact, Sunil Dutt no longer spoke against Bal Thakerey at any occasion. Madame whose party is now in power has just been visited by Priya Dutt, guess what follows next ?