By Parul Garg:
Even the parliament in India does not want to miss upon the glamour quotient, and so, it has a hand full of celebrities as members. The reality hits hard when it is only a one sided relationship that is being pursued. The glittering stars have yet not adjusted themselves to the environment of the Parliament. Busy with schedules and stardom, they have recorded a marked low attendance in parliament sessions till now. Celebrities who were super enthusiastic about getting a seat in parliament three months back have seemed to revise their priority list.
Political parties campaigned in the election campaign of 2014 heavily via celebrity endorsement. People in villages are considered to be a huge vote bank, and since the parties see them as illiterate and naive, fooling them with the pre-image of these glittering stars has been taken up as wide spread strategy across the nation.
For a nation which worships Sachin Tendulkar, they will definitely vote for him. But, how is the nation supposed to react when ‘The Sachin Tendulkar’ records one of the lowest i.e. 3 per cent (last year) attendance in parliament, absolutely in contrast to his image on the pitch.
Not only shortage of attendance, but also lack of participation in questioning and issues being raised by the two houses of parliament has been observed. When you are not passionate about something, you should never take up that something! These glamorous MP’s of parliament have not yet realised the seriousness of the role they are supposed to play being a member of parliament.
The dream girl Hema Malini and a Bengali actor Tapas Pal have not attended a single session of parliament till now. People who are not serious about attending the sessions of parliament should not be nominated. When these celebrities do not even bother to attend the session, what change will they seek to bring about? Again, we can relate to the false promises that have been made just in order to get votes. When these people don’t even know about the issues taken up in the session, what promises and what fulfilment can we talk about? The stunning and beautiful Rekha, member of Rajya Sabha, has also been criticised for short attendance and prolonged leaves.
People should do things which they are good at and serious about, and I believe some are good at giving appearance in Award shows and not the parliament.
When the nation is looking forward to change, these ambassadors of change are busy bunking! It’s a serious problem if teachers bunk classes, but it’s perfectly fine if you are member of the Indian parliament. The shortage of attendance of MP’s does not only reflect their carefree attitude towards the problems and challenges that we as a nation face but it is an insult to the apex authority of the Parliament. People who have no respect for the parliament should not have been nominated in the very first place.
Deficit attendance of celebrity parliament members is not an issue that has come up this year for the first time. The same issue was in news last year, and the year before that, and so on, but nothing has changed. Either penalise those who are short of attendance, or please do not nominate people who are not serious about their responsibility towards the nation!