Master blaster scores poorlY in parliaMent

A number of Rajya Sabha members are upset about the habitual “absentee”, nominated, MPs, who, they say, come to the House from the “backdoor” but are hardly interested in the serious business of Parliament. The other day, Samajwadi Party MP, Naresh Agarwal asked in the House: “Where are our eminent members of the House like actors and cricketers? They should resign if they are not interested.”

On Tuesday, Agarwal asked cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar to resign from the nominated seat as the cricketer had a “miserable score” in the House. His other target was actress Rekha, also a nominated member. Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Agarwal said, “Is it not a pity that absentee Tendulkar is a Bharat Ratna? I admire Rekha as an actress, but Rajya Sabha’s proceedings are a serious business.”

Agarwal had raised this issue in March also, asking, “What is the point of having ‘star members’ in the Parliament when they are not to be seen?” The issue of continuing absence of nominated members has started finding resonance among many regular members. Many are in favour of cancelling the membership of such habitual absentees by amending the law. There are 12 distinguished nominated members in the RS. Besides Tendulkar and Rekha, others are Roopa Ganguly (actress), M.C. Mary Kom (boxer), Anu Aga, Sambhaji Chhatrapati, Swapan Dasgupta, Narendra Jadhav, K. Parasaran, Gopi Suresh, Subramanian Swamy and K.T.S. Tulsi.

“Tendulkar and Rekha are the worst performers in attendance among the nominated members,” said Agarwal, adding that the government had honoured them “but they don’t care.” Tendulkar and Rekha were nominated by the UPA government in 2012. Their attendance is far below the average of 78%. Both are higher secondary pass. Till date, Rekha has not asked a single question. Tendulkar’s attendance “score” is 22.

When Agarwal was raising this issue in the House, Tendulkar was busy at the launch of his personal app called “100 MB”. Coolly, he refused to react and said that “it is not the right platform to talk about it”. A BJP MP says that Tendulkar knows Parliament is not his “field” and he can make tonnes of money—by staying away from Parliament— from his cricket activities and modelling for TV commercials.