It is very unfortunate that Mr. Shatrughan Sinha has decided to withdraw his hotel project in Bihar. His reasoning is that he does not want to compromise his integrity and respect.

Mr. Sinha decided to do this at a time when NRBs (non-resident Biharis) and other investors are playing with the idea of going to Bihar and FDI and other investments could pave the way for the financial restructuring of the state. Mr. Sinha's decision is definitely sending the wrong signals to the investor community.

He said that he does not want anyone to think that he is getting political favors from the NDA government in Bihar. As far as I can recall, Shatrughan Sinha's name is not at all associated with any kind of political corruption. We all know that he went to the FTII for acting training at a time when joining movies was considered to be a big taboo in Bihar. Yet, he went against the tide and established a name for himself.

I, as a young teenager in June 1975, very vividly remember that Shatrughan Sinha was the first person from the Bombay movie fraternity to oppose the Emergency. He organized a meeting in Bombay which was attended, among others, by Pran, Dev Anand, and Danny.

Again in 1975, he flew to Patna from Bombay and gave a draft of Rs.1 lakh to Dr. Jagannath Mishra, the then CM of Bihar to make a contribution to the Flood Relief fund.

The last thing Mr. Sinha should worry about is that what other people would say. His actions should be based on his convictions and feelings for the state and not any political compulsions. We all know that Shatrughan Sinha does not need Bihar to make money. The efforts of Mr. Sinha may not be immediately tangible but his interest and contribution in the growth of Bihar may change the trickle into a flood of investments in Bihar. He should try to represent the middle of the road public opinion and not pay any heed to those left or right oriented people who have their own hidden political agendas.

And as far as his apprehension for other people's evaluation of his actions is concerned, I would like to remind Mr. Sinha of the song in Amar Prem - "Kuchh to log kahenge, logon ka kam hai kehna". If he had listened to people before joining FTII, Bihar would not have gotten its SHOTGUN. We already have tons of people who do not have an iota of honesty and morality in them. Mr. Shatrughan Sinha should stand for his convictions and not get swayed by political correctness. People should not feel that there is no bullet left in their Shotgun.

About the author:

Punyatma Sharan is a native of Rajendra Nagar, Patna. He is the Founder/CEO of PRIME INTERNATIONAL INC., a United States based company. He has a BA (Political Science) from Patna College and an MBA (Finance) from St. John's University, New York. He was also an elected member of Patna University Student's Union.