Since Tendulkar does not have the time or inclination for Parliament work, he must take a decision that enables him to redeem the love and respect of citizens and command the stature worthy of a Bharat Ratna
Sachin Tendulkar’s sudden appearance in the Rajya Sabha for a brief while on August 3 has once again revived the debate on the poor attendance record in Parliament of some of the nominated members to the House. In particular, the attendance record of two nominated members — Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha — has been dismal and has led to intense media scrutiny and a public outcry regarding their disrespect for the country’s apex legislative body.
Tendulkar was appointed a member of the Rajya Sabha on April 27, 2012. Since then, Rajya Sabha has met for 374 days but he has attended the House only on 24 days. It appears as if he began playing truant from the very first year of his nomination because he did not make an appearance in the Budget Session of 2012 — which was the very first Session after his nomination. Thereafter, he turned up for the first time on a single day in the Monsoon Session of 2012 and altogether skipped the Winter Session that year and the first and second parts of the Budget Session of 2013. His record in 2014 was also dismal with no attendance in the second part of the Winter Session, the Special Session and the Budget Session.
Sadly, Rekha is another member of the House who seems to be disinterested in the proceedings. She too was nominated on April 27, 2012 and while the Rajya Sabha has met for 374 days since then, she has attended Parliament for just 18 days. She marked her attendance on three days each in 2012, 2013 and 2014. She has made a single appearance in the on-going Monsoon Session. But, amazingly, she has not asked a single question in the last five years. Millions of cine fans, who have admired her brilliant performances, are saddened by her complete disinterest in Parliament.
Over the years, the attendance record of many nominated members of the Rajya Sabha has been rather poor. Prithviraj Kapoor, Nargis Dutt, Pandit Ravi Shankar, MF Hussain, RK Narayan and many such luminaries have been nominated to the upper House since the 1950s.
Another national icon — lata Mangeshkar — had an even more dismal attendance record during her tenure. lataji was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1999-2005. In those six years, she attended Parliament on just 11 days. In fact, throughout the years 2002 and 2003, she attended the House on just one day.
Tendulkar’s poor attendance record has been the subject of media scrutiny since 2014 — that is about two years after his nomination. The issue was first raised three years ago when he was seen inaugurating a shopping mall in Vijayavada but had no time to attend the Rajya Sabha when the Budget Session was on. Tendulkar’s angry response to media criticism seemed to indicate a “how dare you question meIJ” attitude. On one occasion, he took a swipe at the media and said, “These days the media has an opinion on everything!”
In light of his angry retorts, we need to ask the master blaster a few questions: Why should the media not have an opinion on your poor parliamentary recordIJ You had no problems with the media all these years when it hailed you as the greatest national icon, showered encomiums on you and influenced the decision to confer the Bharat Ratna on you and even secure you membership of the Rajya Sabha. But now you question the media’s right to legitimately confront you over your poor parliamentary performanceIJ
Second, you are probably not aware of this, but the Government has really stretched the constitutional provision regarding nominations to make you a member of the Rajya Sabha. Article 80 (1) (a) says the Rajya Sabha shall have 12 members who are nominated by the President. Article 80(3) says the nominated members “shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely literature, science, art and social service”.
So, as you can see, there is no reference to sportspersons in this list and by no stretch of imagination can you be classified as a man of letters, science, art or even social service. Yet, the Congress-led UPA Government went out of the way to nominate you, in the hope that some of your cricketing glory would rub off on it and give it an ounce of image-enhancement in the 2014 lok Sabha election. However, that was not to be and the Congress got its worst electoral drubbing this year.
Second, soon after your nomination to the Rajya Sabha in April 2012, you called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Obviously, you presumed that you owed this ‘thanks-giving’ just to her and not to the Indian state. You forgot that you have admirers across the political spectrum and that you, as a national icon, ought to be even-handed in your conduct. Since Sonia Gandhi was the de facto head of the Government, you thought it was enough to pay obeisance to her. Nobody else mattered — be it lK Advani, Prakash Karat, Chandrababu Naidu, Nittish Kumar or Mayawati.
Your apologists cite the rule that says you cannot be absent continuously for 60 days and argue that you have not violated the rule because you pop in to the House for a while before the deadline. By your conduct, what you have done is display your contempt, not just for Parliament but for India’s Constitution-makers as well. As Javed Akhtar, another nominated Member of Parliament once said, the nomination is not a trophy that you can carry home. It entails great responsibility towards the country’s 1.3 billion citizens.
Your conduct seems to indicate that you are doing Parliament a favour by being an MP. A Bharat Ratna should not show such disrespect for Parliament. Millions of Indians, including this writer, who admire your record-smashing performances in cricket, are saddened by your attitude to Parliament — the institution that everyone holds in high esteem. They cannot bear to see their icon land up in such an indefensible position and come under such adverse media publicity. Since you do not have the time or inclination for Parliament work, you must take a decision that will enable you to redeem the love and respect of fellow citizens and command the stature worthy of a Bharat Ratna. The ball is now in your court! This applies mutatis mutandis to Rekha as well !
(The writer is Chairman, Prasar Bharati. Views expressed here are personal)