Explaining My Thinking

In one of my previous posts condemning Sanjay Dutt for attempting to contest elections, a commentator has said ' I seriously think Sanjay Dutt has paid enough for his misdemeanor, How long do you want to hang him on his cross?'. I replied to the comment, but I felt it needed further explanation, for anyone else who may feel the same way, but might not have commented on it.

Sanjay Dutt, for one has not been acquitted of his crime, but has been found guilty under the Arms Act, and is out on bail. To be clear, he is a convicted criminal, and that does not make him innocent. I think and hope everyone agrees with this, and so I move on further. I am not a part of any political party, nor do I have any personal motivation for malice against Mr. Dutt. I am neither here to judge his acts whether in personal life or public, and pay little attention to whatever nonsense he speaks. I just think he is lucky to belong to a rich and influential family, to have been let off on bail, and to be allowed to earn and live lavishly by working in films. And I would just leave it at that, and keep reading or hearing about his marriages/girlfriends/break-ups/phone-calls/daughter/sister as a regular piece of gossip. The issue rises, because he wants to represent a huge number of Indian citizens in the parliament, and that means he is given the responsibility, authority as well as power to affect a lot of lives in the country. And that is what I find unacceptable. It is sad enough that in our country, we have very little as criteria for someone to be eligible for contesting elections, but to allow a convicted criminal is just heinous, and that too with someone who has proven links with the supporters, financiers and helpers of terror attacks in the country. I feel that is a violation of the sanctity of the Indian Parliament.

Yes, there are many convicted criminals who are a part of the Indian political scenario already, and that is a highly shameful situation in itself, no doubt. But we cannot say it is okay to do something wrong because someone else has already done it. I have made a start, an attempt to stop such wrong practices, this is my contribution, in my own little way. And I hope people understand why.

And I have not taken any offence to any comment on the previous post, a healthy debate is always welcome.


I see that quite a few fellow bloggers have picked up this logo, and wish to say thanks for supporting the cause. Just to be clear, I have designed and created the logo myself, with some inputs from Solilo and Smitha. So people if you are using it, it would be nice if you left me an intimation, telling me you are picking it up, or at least mention it on your blog. I did not water print my name on it, because I did not want to take away from the cause.

I have requested you before, and I am requesting you again, if any one has any ideas on taking this forward, please do let me know, please share your inputs. As of now, I am planning to send the previous post "Message to Sanjay Dutt" to a couple of newspapers, and I also wish to add the links to blogs of others who support the cause. If you really want to support this, please do drop in a line in the comment space for this post. I will be taking the liberty of including all the blogs which have used the logo or the slogan in my mail, so if you want to be exempt, please let me know.