BLAME IT ON THE ENEMY: The CWC's analysis of the Gujarat debacle ignores the obvious

The Bharat Shah-Nazim Rizvi case on underworld threats to Mumbai film personalities is creating its own heroes and heroines. While film personalities like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Rakesh Roshan refused to cooperate with the prosecutors, actor Preity Zinta showed she was made of sterner stuff. ''I am an honest and decent Indian citizen," Zinta retorted when public prosecutor Rohini Salian told the court that she was "disowning" the witness-a formality before a prosecution witness is declared hostile. Zinta thumped the edge of the witness box and lodged her "objection". Unlike her colleagues who denied they had received extortion threats, Zinta confirmed that during the filming of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke in 2000, she had received a call from a man who introduced himself as Razak, a "bhai ka admi", and demanded Rs 50 lakh. Appearing before Special Judge A.P. Bhangale, Zinta stood by the statement she had made to the police. She is the second witness after director Abbas, one-half of the Abbas-Mastan duo, to do so. The statement corroborates the taped conversation between Sanjay Dutt and Chhota Shakeel, in which Dutt allegedly protested against the threat made to Zinta.