what's dutt???!!!

these days, sanjay dutt has been all over the newspapers, with his conviction and 6 year sentence and all. dunno whether it's just my common revulsion for all things famous (harry potter being another recent example), but that guy's behaviour just makes me sick. and the statements made by his fans make me even sicker.

i'm not really in a position to justify or cry foul over the duration of his jail term, but i really think he has been pushing his luck way too far. how very stupidly cocksure does he have to be to not be prepared for a sentence at the end of a freaking 13 year long trial??? what was he expecting, another year of dilly dallying so that he could make calls to his daughter in the US? and HTF can he possibly expect to get off scot free, when people who *he* convinced to commit the crime got a jail term? what kind of fairness would that be?

he made a statement after the sentence was handed out: "i know what i am. nothing else matters."

yeah. you got that right. you're a common criminal. a rich and powerful common criminal. nothing else matters. now go eat your damn prison breakfast before you die of starvation and other similarly pea-brained people blame the prison authorities.

which brings me to my other peeve: the fans.

granted, this guy is an actor/filmmaker. some of his films have done well. atleast one of them ("lagey raho munnabhai") was quite patriotic and all. so what? is doing good some kind of atonement for the crimes he's done? if so, what about the other convicts? don't they get the same kind of treatment?

let's make it personal. if (hypothetically) mr. dutt was personally responsible for ordering the murder of someone from their family, would they still consider his film making a reason for letting him get off scot free? i'm ready to bet that they'll be pushing for life, or better still, death.

thankfully people are beginning to see sense now. i've noticed the pro-pardon commenters have been declining compared to the pro-equality-of-law commenters. i hope the proportion of people who feel that way is also following the same trend. if they're not, we're setting the stage for rich and influential people getting away with anything (i guess that happens anyway, but atleast its not publicly approved...yet)

oh and something mysteriously missing from the comments: mr dutt himself, in "lagey raho..." had spoken about following gandhiji's footsteps and going to jail, as that would increase the respect his opponents would have for him.

it's respect building time, mr. dutt!!! let's see if you can practise what you preached. it's the least you can do for your fans who love you so dearly :D