Samajwadi Party

Rajya Sabha

Sachin Tendulkar

Budget session

Hema Malini

Congress

Rekha

MP questions absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha from Rajya Sabha 01:07

Naresh Aggarwal, an MP from thein Uttar Pradesh brought up the issue of lack of attendance of celebs who are nominated to theby various political parties during the proceedings today.Aggarwal said that the nomination of 12 people who are successes in other fields to the Rajya Sabha is an opportunity for people from non-political fields to have a say in the democratic process. However, these celebs hardly ever attend Parliamentary sessions, he said.“ Hum taras rahein hain unhe dekhne ke liye, woh aate hi nahin hain (we are eager to see them, but they just don't come),” he said, namingspecifically and movie stars in general. He claimed that their lack of attendance was indicative of the fact that they have no interest in being a part of the Parliamentary proceedings.Aggarwal was forced to keep his statements brief as the Rajya Sabha Speaker pointed out that this issue was not an official point of order.According to PRSIndia.org, a site that tracks Parliamentary attendance, Tendulkar’s attendance in theof 2017 is 5 percent. It was 13 percent in each of the parts of the Budget Session in 2016, 15 percent in Monsoon Session 2016 and 10 percent in Winter Session 2016. His average attendance since he became a member is 8 percent.Rekha’s performance is worse, according to PRSIndia.org. This Budget Session, her attendance is 10 percent. However, it was just 6 percent in Budget Session Part 1 2016 (no data for Part 2), and 5 percent each in Monsoon Session and Winter Session 2016. Her average attendance for her entire membership period is 5 percent.On the other hand, BJP nomineebeats bothnominees hands down with an overall attendance record of 37 percent. This Budget Session, her attendance is 56 percent. It was 44 percent and 62 percent in the first and second parts of the Budget Session 2016, 10 percent in Monsoon Session 2016 and 24 percent in Winter Session 2016, according to PRSIndia.org.This is not the first time the nominees have come under fire for lack of attendance. A report released by Factly in 2015 found that both Tendulkar andhave less than 6 percent attendance and have not participated in any debate.