SANJAY RAUT: Modi's message to Bollywood is clear—'submit or be crushed'
The wrongful arrest of Aryan Khan shows the prime minister’s contempt for the rule of law.
BY SANJAY RAUT
With its trumped-up drugs arrest of Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, the Modi government has sent a message to any who would oppose it: ‘Submit or be crushed’.
If you believe the government’s recent spree of accusations and interrogations in Bollywood, the enormous Mumbai-based film business, you probably assume that all Indian movies are about drugs like opium and home-grown marijuana, and that the movie professionals do nothing with their time except consume and peddle them. His speech, and others like it, are attempts to malign and tarnish the legacy of Mumbai and its century-old film industry—not just within India, but also internationally.
Using its Central agencies—now including The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)—the state has marked out key figures in Bollywood for persecution: Its silver-screen titans, like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, hold sway over millions of people around the world, not only in their home country. Indeed, they are almost Indian culture’s ambassadors. Bachchan is Hindu, Khan is Muslim.
By the time he was set free this evening, Shah Rukh's son Aryan, along with several of his friends, had spent more than 25 days in NCB custody. The Bureau claims that a few grams of cannabis were found on Aryan's friend, but does not even pretend that Aryan himself was carrying any drugs. But he spent nearly three weeks imprisoned in the Arthur Road jail, which is intended to hold for criminals and terrorists.
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In the past, those arrested or detained under such circumstances have been granted bail within 24 hours. Last November, a comedian working with the popular 'Kapil Sharma Show' was stopped by police while she was allegedly carrying 86.5 of cannabis; she and her husband were arrested and granted bail after being held for two days.
Aryan is not being punished for the supposed crimes of his friends. He is being punished for being the son of Shah Rukh Khan. Sameer Wankhede, an officer with the NCB, carried out the raid and arrest, the farcical nature of which has been exposed by a witness who has alleged that Wankhede was bribed. Wankhede is the same officer who added a 'narcotics and drugs' twist to the suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput; he also held Rhea Chakraborty, an actress who was close to Rajput, in prison for 32 days. Chakraborty tested negative for drugs and had no connections with drug dealers—but she was still in prison for more than a month on drug charges..
Wankhede held Chakraborty for the same reason he arrested and detained Aryan Khan: to terrorise the artists of the extremely popular Indian film industry, since it is based in a state that is not run by the Narendra Modi-led BJP. This is not just obviously illegal, but against the most basic principles of human dignity and simple justice. Mumbai has been humiliated: These two cases took place in a single year, and both seem tailored to appeal to the public’s worst voyeuristic instincts. Every Central agency is being used to isolate public figures, be it film stars, journalists, or politicians in the state of Maharashtra (where Mumbai is the capital).
Other state ministers have been hounded by officials—including Wankhede—pursuing made-up charges. The investigating officers are always as rabidly defended as if they were members of the central ruling party. Wankhede has been exposed as a corrupt liar over the course of the Aryan Khan case, which in turn has unmasked the Bhartiya Janata Party itself.
The film industry in Mumbai is the pride of India. It employs thousands of people across the country. It generates revenues for the government. Dadasaheb Phalke, himself a native of Maharashtra, laid the foundation for the Indian film industry, and it flourished in Mumbai. It was never bound by religion. This was the same industry that made Yousuf Khan, known to the world as Dilip Kumar, a megastar. It honoured Shah Rukh Khan with the title of 'Badshah' or 'King Khan'. It took Salman and Amir Khan to heights of fame. Amitabh Bachchan became a legend because of Bollywood. These people did not accomplish so much while drowning in drugs!
No one who wants to destroy this whole structure to settle a political score is a patriot, however often they may claim to be one.
During the national emergency imposed in 1975, minister Sanjay Gandhi tried to pressure artists and control the National radio service. One of India’s biggest artists, Kishore Kumar, was prohibited from being played on the service. Vidyacharan Shukla had been made broadcast minister after his predecessor resigned, but Bollywood’s artists stood tall through all of that. The cinema that now flourishes in Mumbai is the very soul and pride of this city and the envy of many others. We have witnessed regular attempts to move the centre of the Hindi film industry to Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh, which are ruled by the Modi-led government; incentives are announced, subsidies are provided and yet when the industry refuses to budge, Modi acolytes begin trying to intimidate the industry’s most prominent figures by suggesting that they make their money illegally. The reality remains that mere movie stars are no match for the ruling party and its industrialists, whose offshore banks are plump with illicit funds.
BJP leaders and Hindu nationalists keep saying that the Mumbai film industry is infested with drugs. But was it not Modi’s own government that claimed that to have put an end to the illegal drug trade with its disastrous demonetisation?
If even demonetisation hasn’t ended the drug trade, who should be the NCB investigating? The central investigation agencies have become nothing but puppets of the BJP and the Modi regime. The leaders of the BJP in Mumbai proudly tell their friends that they know 'who shall be raided next' and make public innuendos that are loyally followed up by the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department. Recent evidence clearly shows that the raids on the cruise party during which Aryan Khan was arrested were carried out on the instructions of New Delhi and supervised by the BJP.
When the shocking revelations regarding Sameer Wankhede came to light, there was no just reason for the BJP to defend him so aggressively. Many in the film industry make frequent visits to New Delhi in order to genuflect before the powerful, but Shah Rukh Khan had avoided this public deference. He has also maintained his relations with the Gandhi family. Indeed, Shah Rukh has stood with a straight spine for a long time. He has never blindly followed any ruler, including my own party, Shiv Sena.
As a citizen, Shah Rukh Khan is entitled to maintain his political beliefs and express them. It is the same right bestowed upon every citizen of this nation, but things have changed in India. Our leaders play a dangerous political game, and every incident is a confrontation between Hindu and Muslim, India and Pakistan.
The Aryan Khan case is not different. Aryan has been granted bail, but what about the 25 days that he was imprisoned? Only a select few artists—notably Jaya Bachcha and Javed Akhtar—have spoken against the attacks on Aryan and the film industry, and of course they have been publicly trolled by supposed ‘patriots’, who even attacked and abused the 24-year-old granddaughter of the Bachchan family. Is this patriotism? The NCB’s actions are worrying. The Aryan Khan arrest is clearly the result of intensifying conflict between the central and state governments, and the BJP seems hellbent on forcing compliance out of chief ministers of states who are not allied to its interests—or simply destroying them. The union of these states and their proud citizens—people with a fighting spirit!—are the glorious foundation of my nation, its freedom and its democracy. The debt rises and the economy fractures, corruption and falsehoods run rampant. Will we at least stop attacking our own foundations?
Sanjay Raut is a Member of Parliament for the Shiv Sena and is the editor of 'Saamna', a regional Indian newspaper. His party runs the coalition government in Maharashtra.
As usual ,in the jungle Raj of RSS and BJP tea boy and tadipaar are destroying our country and selling our country and it's economy.
Dalits and aadivaasis shoukd join hands with Sikh and Muslims to kick out these anti nationals immediately.
When India chose to vote for the murderer Modi, everything became fair game. The sad part is many Indians still do not see this and adore this sadak chaap man. I just feel sad for Indians to have voted this half human - half animal as their Prime Minister.