On March 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a speech in Parliament bidding farewell to those Rajya Sabha MPs whose terms are about to end soon. “We bid farewell to some of our MP colleagues in the Rajya Sabha. All of the outgoing parliamentarians have their significant contribution, importance, and each one of them has tried to contribute to the best of their capacity for the bright future of this country, and the country will not forget them," he said.

Maybe not “each one of them”.

Among the MPs set to retire are cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and actor Rekha, but with almost no contribution to the chair they have held. Tendulkar has up until now a 7.3 per cent attendance record in Parliament, while Rekha has 4.5 per cent.

Both Tendulkar and Rekha have a very poor attendance record in the Rajya Sabha. Photo: PTI/file

According to News 18: “Since April 2012, when they were made members, as per records available till the beginning of this month, Tendulkar has attended just 29 of the nearly 400 Parliament sessions. He asked just 22 questions and introduced 0 bills. The master batsman earned Rs 86.23 lakh as salary since his joining. Rekha has since April 2012 attended just 18 sessions, she has asked no questions and introduced no bills during her tenure. She has earned Rs 99.59 lakh, or nearly a crore, as an MP in the last six years.”

Clearly the celebrities have wasted two seats that could have been used to raise issues that concern citizens, or sharpened the government’s decisions and policies through pertinent questions and discussions. Not just that, they have used enormous funds of the state’s money on salaries and allowances.

So is this the failure of Rekha and Tendulkar personally, or of the system that elected them in the first place? The answer is that both are at fault and the sufferers are India’s democray and its people.

Role of the Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, has provision for 245 members. These do not come from the hurly burly of electoral politics, but are indirectly elected by the state legislatures, underlining India’s federal structure. Also, the President, with advice from the government, can appoint 12 members for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services, who can provide the input of their expertise to policy-making. One-third of the members retire every two years.

The role of the Upper House is best explained through the fascinating debate held on it in the Constituent Assembly. As The Hindu quotes, “N Gopalaswami Ayyangar termed it as the House which can rein in “passions of the moment”. Lokanath Mishra described it as “a sobering House, a reviewing House, a House standing for quality and the members will be exercising their right to be heard on the merits of what they say, for their sobriety and knowledge of special problems; quantity, that is, their number, is not much of moment”.”

Who is to blame

Political parties tend to use the Rajya Sabha to park their high and mighty leaders who have not been able to win general elections, and in case of nominated members, use the post as a reward for celebrities and personalities they like.

A Rajya Sabha berth, of course, is not a Padma award. It is a responsibility, and maybe governments need to pick the 12 members more carefully. The UPA-II appointed Tendulkar to the House before he had retired from cricket. How did the government expect him to attend Parliament if, say, he was touring with the team outside India?

In Rekha’s case, according to rumour mills, she was nominated only to spite Jaya Bachchan, Samajwadi Party MP from Uttar Pradesh.

Another reason is that in India, it is not easy being political for celebrities. Attacking them is a sure-shot way to fetch fame. No wonder then that actors choose what they say very carefully. Perhaps public figures should decline the Rajya Sabha offer rather then be in this discomfiting position.

Lata Mangeshkar, another MP with not a very impressive record in Parliament, had said: “My tenure in the Rajya Sabha was anything but happy. I was reluctant to be inducted into Parliament. In fact, I pleaded with those who urged me into Rajya Sabha to let me off…. What did I know about politics? I’m sure Sachin knows more about politics than me.”

Solutions

So if, after being nominated, an MP is not participating in the Rajya Sabha, what should be done? Calls have been made for the resignation or sacking of both Tendulkar and Rekha, from as ideologically different quarters as then Samajwadi Party and now BJP’s Naresh Agarwal, and CPM member P Rajeev.

The MPs’ seat can be vacated if they miss House proceedings for more than 60 days at a stretch, which the actor and the cricketer had not done, saving them by an inch.

Tendulkar had later defended his poor attendance saying he had to be by his unwell brother’s side. As lyricist-poet and MP Javed Akhtar said, “Membership of Parliament is not a trophy”. Hopefully, both those choosing members and accepting membership keep this in mind.

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