Daddy or Democracy - Priya Poser for Sanjay

Akbar Khan

Its not easy being Sanjay Dutt, whatever the superstar does or plans to do raises eyebrows and earns him the ire of those he loves and trusts. Everything from his boyhood misadventures to the women in his life or even his political affiliations come in for huge criticism in apparent efforts to dwarf the strapping six footer.

Democracy or daddy is the question put into the public domain by Sanjay’s parliamentarian sister Priya Dutt on Wednesday, who suggested that Sanjay’s new found political affinity with the Samajwadi Party would have irked their late father Sunil Dutt.

Priya, perhaps, failed to note that as one of the most respected figures in the Congress party her late father would have been proud of Sanjay for having sought and found his own ideological principality rather than waiting in line to reap a harvest sowed in by his parents.

Sanjay’s decision to stay away from the Congress, despite irking Priya has saved the Congress further ignominy as the party has come in for repeated attacks from the main Opposition BJP for its dynastic character, especially as most young leaders in the Congress today have strong family roots in the party which now awaits the third generation of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.

A man’s man, Sanjay has been faulted on several occasions but his unique ability to risk everything for what he believes in, and a god given talent to constantly rebuild himself is what sets him apart from the snotty ‘Baba Log’ that inhabit Pali Hill or even the LBZ for that matter.