Daily Times

For over two weeks, India’s premier drug agency is comfortably cushioned in the eye of the storm over a high-profile arrest. Making headlines every day, Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan being denied bail has not sat well with the masses. Going by the strong condemnation trending on social media, the air in Mumbai reeks of malafide intentions.

Though the bureau seems adamant (some may say, proud) about their case, the ease with which their charges are jumping from possession to consumption and now, the terrifying trafficking does substantiate that there is something sinister at play here. Whether Junior Khan has had to pay the price of being stuck in the wrong place on the wrong day is still up for debate. But more and more public figures are joining hands to point at the big ugly menace of harassment prevailing within the saffron lands.

That Aryan Khan is being made an example by the ultra-right-wing Modi and his cabinet is increasingly lamented as an open secret. Despite leading an uncontroversial career, Mr Khan had landed in a hornet’s nest soon after BJP assumed power. They have branded him anti-national for his politics, waged calls for boycotts of his films and even gone to the extent of drawing analogies with masterminds of terror attacks.

The latest to get down to brass tacks is illustrious columnist Burkha Dutt and luminary lyricist Javed Akhtar as they decried the loopholes in the Indian justice system. Why is Aryan Khan still behind bars if he was not carrying any drugs? Is mere suspicion enough reason for the lower courts to pander to the whims of some rich and the mighty? Don’t the criminal antecedent of star-witnesses raise red flags for an organisation desperately trying to make its mark?

While those lending support to the Khan family in their seemingly unending days of dread vary from hushed-hushed inuendos to those not mincing their words, the message is still clear: the minorities better toe the line or be ready to be made an example of!

Life as a Muslim in India was never akin to taking a walk in the park. The horrific partition wounds never let the secular identity gain deep roots. But things were never as bad as that in the wake of the fear-mongering propagated by the RSS. Unchecked hate speed is an easy tool to appease votes by baying for the blood of Muslims. For the sake of hapless Aryan Khan, let’s just hope he doesn’t fall prey to dirty tactics! After all, he has been pushed into a circus far, far bigger than himself. *