Reel nahi, apun ko real Gandhigiri maangta!

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For all the 'Gandhigiri' Sanjay Dutt espoused in Munnabhai series, for all his efforts to project an image of an ambassador of non-violence through his Munnabhai sequel which for a moment seemed to spawn a pan-India gandhigiri cult, far removed from the AK-56 flaunting days of post-1993 Mumbai blast, the nation's highest court has laid out a real-life script for Sanju Baba by refusing to stay his conviction pronounced by Mumbai's TADA court.

The natural and the legal fallout of this judgement is that Sanjay Dutt cannot contest elections. In one mighty blow, the apex court has put paid to Sanjay's hopes of taking his father's legacy forward. Munnabhai MP nahi ban sakta. At least for now. So says the Supreme Court of India.

Sanjay's counsel in the court tried to harness every emotional argument in their armour to project his client as a man who has a "good image, has conducted himself well after his conviction, comes from a decent family background, has been exonerated in the Mumbai blast case". But the court was not to get taken in by these arguments. On simple point of law the court while refusing to stay his conviction went on to state that allowing a convicted person to contest election is unthinkable as this will set an unprecedented trend where convicts will stage an entry into representative institutions like Parliament and State Legislatures.

Munnabhai thought after having comfortably slipped into the wedding 'pagri' he was just the candidate suitable for donning the electoral head gear. But the court denied Munnabhai the political orgasm he so wanted to reach by becoming Samajwadi Party's mascot from Lucknow. The court was blunt in proclaiming reel life image does not qualify a man, whose career has been pock-marked with acts of villainy as grave as harbouring AK 56 during the days of charged up communal emotions in Mumbai of early 1992, to be fit enough to wed public life through elections.

In one mighty swipe, advertently or inadvertently so, the Supreme Court has also set a new standard for benchmarking netas who could contest elections and thereby enter public life. The apex court had once denied former CM of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha from contesting elections after upholding her conviction in the TANSI land deal case. But Jayalalitha's case pales before Sanjay's. For one because through Munna bhai sequel Sanjay Dutt has become a youth icon who could have sailed through elections riding on the wave of his unprecedented popularity.

The apex court has set a precedent no doubt. But will it discourage parties from fielding candidates with dubious criminal background. Will it discourage a Mayawati from withdrawing Mukhtar Ansari's ticket.

Will it dissuade a BJP from dropping Varun from Pilibhit or denying Manoj Pradhan, the man accused of murder and arson in Kandhmal which saw 40 dead in the worst ever pogrom to have hit Orissa in its history ever. Will a Laloo Yadav think twice before offering a ticket to Heena, wife of mafia don of Bihar's Bhojpur belt. On the contrary, Shahabuddin was a sure-shot candidate for Laloo from Siwan had he been out of jail.

Only recently former Prime Minister of India I K Gujral released a survey-based report on criminalisation of politics. The statistics revealed in the report can stun any civil liberty afficianado into silence and shame. The survey report prepared by an NGO, National Social Watch Coalition, comprising social groups, parliamentarians, academecia and policy makers found 518 out of 3182 candidates across political parties having criminal backgrounds.

The report further says that nearly 100 netas elected to the 14th Lok Sabha have been chargesheeted in criminal cases. The report claims that over 50 per cent of serious criminal cases registered against MPs were mostly from Hindi heartland of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and MP.

How can you put a stop to high profile criminals from entering representative institutions like Parliament and State Legislatures. Political parties can make a difference by alienating such elements from joining them. But it is easier said than done. A strong criminal resume acts as a major moral booster for any candidate to become a bonafide member of any political party and therefore lay claim to contesting elections on party ticket. The criminal justice system has failed to deliver speedy justice. Therefore by the time a Varun Gandhi or a Manoj Pradhan or a Mukhtar Ansari are pronounced guilty of criminal misdemenour they would have become maanneeya vidhyakji, maanneeya saansad mahoday or simply maanneeya mantrijee, their verdict pronounced in "janta ki adalat."

This "janta ki adalat" bit is getting on to people's nerves. You can murder someone, commit rape, kill people in riots and yet you have the licence to contest and get elected to legislature and Parliament. This is the most easiest way out to corrupt a system already besieged with valuelessness and no ethics.

While parties may shout Jai ho from roof-tops the public has been reduced to crying - Bhay ho...Interestingly, the two terms are conveniently interchangeable. Depending on which party is defending which criminal.

Will somebody step forward to do a REAL gandhigiri and turn the system around?