Feroz Khan’s tribute to Sanjay Gandhi at the beginning of Qurbani

[Before the credits roll the entire text (see below) is presented via a voice-over as documentary footage from Sanjay Gandhi’s funeral flashes on the screen. The voice I believe is Feroz Khan’s. There is a shocking level of propaganda and sycophancy evident in this ‘eulogy’. One wonders why Feroz Khan found it necessary to go quite so far and deliver a ‘speech’ that would have been shameful even coming from the mouths of those most closely related to Sanjay Gandhi. One assumes it wasn’t just potential tax breaks for Qurbani that compelled the director to take this unusual step but also perhaps a certain ideological complicity with the politics and methods of the deceased. I am quite confident that there does not exist anywhere else in Hindi cinema a ‘moment’ comparable to this one. This sort of political hackwork would always seems unacceptable but I am particularly disturbed that such was put at the service of a politician who to my mind is (and ought to be) associated with one of the darkest chapters in Indian democracy. I refer not only to the Emergency, not only to the sheer political decision constituting the same but also to ‘events’ that were in excess of the strict logic of the latter. Mass sterilizations for example. Sanjay Gandhi in many ways seemed dangerously unbalanced. Nehru would have been truly appalled. Then again Indira Gandhi herself did much to alter her father’s legacy for the worse and it is impossible to believe that many of her own decisions would not have made Nehru turn in his grave. This entire ‘history’ and Feroz Khan is just about ready to confer sainthood upon Sanjay! In fact he implies even more than this. Of course he also contributes to the cult of Indira Gandhi for good measure! Here is the text…]

“Shri Sanjay Gandhi, the prince, sleeps in peace. 33 years old and too young to die. Beloved mother, the honorable prime minister, the iron lady of our nation, humanity bows before you in this hour of your grief but unfortunately, life is a bubble and every day is a bonus.


We can only pray to God that he grants us this bonus and youth as long as Providence and mortality permits to guide the destiny of our nation, which is synonymous with your being with us.

The nation and I salute the sleeping prince, his tormented family members, friends and critics… I dedicate my loyalty to loving memory of the prince who I never met but who I salute and hope to meet in judgment before the Almighty.

Respected mother of our great nation with your kind permission I wish to dedicate the proceeds of the premiere in Bangalore and Delhi to memory of sleeping prince. Inshallah, may his soul rest in peace.”