Sushant Singh Rajput

I am a writer, entertainment blogger and a small-time actor myself and just like many of you, even I was excruciatingly pained by the sad demise of Sushant Singh Rajput. Sushant was unarguably a boon for Bollywood who could change the tides in the industry.

However, while every person even remotely related to the field of entertainment is publicly speculating about SSR’s cause of death, I have been completely silent primarily because I am constitutionalist. Let me explain – 

This may seem far fetched to many citizens due to lack of fundamental awareness but every aspect of our life as an Indian citizen is governed by a single organic parent statute or law of the land titled as The Constitution of India. Now, like all organic written material, the Indian Constitution may not be perfect for governing a nation of above 1.38 crore residents. However, even our right to question the Constitution is given to us by the Constitution itself.

Now, the media and entertainment industry and particularly Bollywood might seem to be unquestionably independent all-powerful bodies owing to the facade of their grandeur but the truth remains that even these seemingly untouchable industries are governed by the same 117,369-words document called the Indian constitution.

It is to be noted that we certainly are fortunate as Indian citizens because Part III of the Indian Constitution turned the act of speaking our minds out in the words of our choosing into a fundamental right; unline many other countries where citizens are shot dead for saying what the want.

However, what we often forget or quite royally ignore is the fact that the same Constitution that gives us the right to speak freely also provides for a well-structured executive and justice system.

Though the right to speak freely and a well-structured justice system sound unrelated, from a constitutional perspective these two are quite intertwined ina a manner that they reasonably restrict each other in certain specific cases.

For instance, as much as I have the right to publish slanderous statements that my neighbour uses his dog as a weapon to assault all my house guests, I can exercise this right only after I prove it to be true in a Court of Law.

The similar principle applies in the case of SSR’s sad demise. As much as I have the right to state that Sushant died due to suicide or was murdered by envious Bollywood Lords, I should ideally not pass personal judgement before a Court of Law affirms my speculations.

Now, I would like to point out that speaking out about speculations, as it was being done initially in the SSR case is not against the constitutional principles at all. However, soon after Sushant’s sad demise, the speculations surrounding his death turned into legal trials hosted by popular media houses and social media platforms.

Speculations became allegations and allegations became confirmed statements that began affecting not only the lives of people rich and poor/big and small but also began impacting the careers of artists. The unfounded and unconfirmed claims now have also begun to spread in the interpersonal lives of common citizens and Indians are now divided into factions that are subscribing to an either/or system of belief.

Now, I myself prefer to keep my mind open for all the possibilities, no matter how insane or impossible they may seem to my present restricted pattern of thinking or system of belief. That is exactly why I have kept silent about the SSR issue until now.

Why I am speaking up now is because the apex Constitutional court of India – The Supreme Court – has ordered a CBI investigation in Sushant’s demise. Though that in itself does not prove or disprove anything in itself, it does make a statement that a Constitutional body thinks that prima facie, there is more to the story than is being told.

I personally am going to maintain my open-minded attitude and not affirm or cancel out any possibilities in Sushant’s demise until a document signed by a Constitutional body states one of the possibilities to be true.

While I do not expect any of your readers to maintain as open-minded an attitude as myself, I do urge you all to at least respect and abide by the principles of the organic document that gives us the freedom to speak our will.