Ensuring Justice

The death by suicide of promising Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has virtually opened Pandora’s Box, threatening the very existence of India’s tinsel town. At the same time, it has brought to light the failures of various agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Narcotics Control Bureau of India (NCB). Bollywood’s greed for fame and quick money, supported by the inaction of the said agencies, have helped the nexus between top ranked celebrities and drug mafias to flourish. As a result, the entertainment world in India is in deep crisis where the underworld dons call the shots and the all-powerful men and women from the showbiz world are simply forced to dance to their tunes.

It is no gainsaying that an overhaul of Bollywood is long overdue. It is an open secret that the film industry is totally dependent on underworld money. The front men of various underworld dons have become producers; have gained respectability in tinsel town. As per their wishes, the industry acts. The so-called stars are virtually puppets in the hands of these unscrupulous elements. Many feel that the phenomenal success of some of the present day Bollywood superstars is due to the active support from the underworld, rather than their acting skills. In other words, it is the underworld which decides the way Bollywood should move. People associated with Bollywood starting from big stars to junior artists and technicians have no say in it. At present, NCB is interrogating various Bollywood stars to find the link between the film industry and drug dealers. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. If proper investigation is conducted, many more skeletons will come out, enough to shake the essence of Bollywood.

But, what is more perplexing is that though it is a well known fact, why was the reason it took our investigating agencies so long to learn about what is going on inside Bollywood? Why were they not performing their jobs to keep a watch on activities like smuggling, selling of narcotics and money laundering being conducted in the midst of Bollywood, especially when such activities are potential threats to our national security? It appears that the agencies were simply waiting for an incident like Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide to happen to start working. Sanjay Dutta publicly admitted that he used to take drugs, Fardeen Khan was caught red-handed, yet NCB could not destroy the drug racket. If the agency had performed its job properly, things could well be different.

Social media is flooded with posts demanding justice for Sushant Singh Rajput. So far, three major agencies, CBI, ED and NCB are conducting the investigation. It is being reported that very soon NIA will also join the investigation. If all the agencies together can ascertain the cause of Sushant’s suicide and free the Bollywood from the grabs of underworld dons and drug mafias, it will not only provide a fresh lease of life to the rich cultural tradition of India, it will also ensure justice for Sushant. Should we allow Sushants’s sacrifice to go in vain?