Desist from campaigns for Sanju: Shotgun

"I think the so-called solidarity shows for Sanjay are unwarranted, as they have made it all look like a Sanjay Dutt-versus-others spectacle," says the veteran actor.

Senior BJP leader and Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha said signature campaigns, peace marches, candlelight protests or meetings with ‘extra-constitutional’ authorities would not help mitigate Sanjay Dutt’s problems, and the judiciary alone could bring about relief to him.

“Ours is not a banana republic and we should all allow the law to take its full course,” he told HT in Patna on Monday. “I think the so-called solidarity shows for Sanjay are unwarranted, as they have made it all look like a Sanjay Dutt-versus-others spectacle.”

“The only way Sanjay could hope to get relief is through superior courts,” Sinha said. “I hope, wish and pray that he gets that early, as that will ensure true peace to the soul of his great patriot father Sunil Dutt.”

Asserting that he remains very fond of the jailed film star and close to his family, the claimed he was among the first to have extended wholehearted support to Sanjay after his arrest in 1993. “But emotional decisions, including meetings with Sonia Gandhi, will not help matters now,” he said, referring to the recent meting of Sanjay Dutt’s parliamentarian sister Priya Dutt with the Congress president in this regard.

The former union minister emphasised that Sanjay was a victim of the conspiracy of circumstances, 'but one has to adopt legal course, not the illegal ones, to secure his release'.

“While thinking of Sanjay’s plight, should not we also ponder over the plight of the family members of those killed in the blasts, or, for that matter, those who have also been handed similar or harsher sentences?” he reasoned, calling for not turning the entire scenario into something like Sanjay-versus-others campaign through emotional outbursts.

Sinha, who had gone to offer condolence to the family members of the late Janata Dal-United MP Ajit Singh, who died in a mishap last week, also stressed the need for implementing the Srikrishna Commission panel report on the Mumbai blasts. “It is for the government to book all those indicted in this report,” he said. “After all, what is good for Peter should also be good for Paul.”

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