The star in the house

Actors are vocal during drawing in votes, but remain curiously silent in either House of Parliament

Vijay Sanghvi

A cine star was disqualified from membership of the Upper House because she had simultaneously held an office of profit in Uttar Pradesh (UP).  Her sterling reputation has been built as an actor, so it is not likely to be affected by the Election Commission asking her to step down. The stigma will attach to her political mentor, UP’s chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

There needs to be discussion of the role played by film actors brought to either House. Could they effectively represent the film industry and draw attention to its problems? Or were they just stars whose role was restricted to drawing the votes? The ceremonial retirement of the astute thespian Dilip Kumar from Rajya Sabha provides an insight. Dilip Kumar hardly opened his mouth in the Rajya Sabha during the six years that he occupied the Treasury bench. Very occasionally he engaged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on the communal question. Lata Mangeshkar, whose voice lent itself to many millions of melodies, remained silent in the Rajya Sabha while she remained as the nominated member. The only time she grabbed attention was when she complained that she was not attended with due respect.

The process of bringing the known personalities from the film world had begun with nomination of Prithviraj Kapoor. He contributed little, and later-day politicians stopped considering people from the film work as important in the political arena. This changed after Indira Gandhi opened the doors once again for them when she brought Nargis to Rajya Sabha in 1980. Nargis died too early to prove the norm different.

Then there was her husband, late Sunil Dutt, who was duly elected to the Lok Sabha. Though long in the sidelines, the importance of his constituency helped him eventually become a cabinet minister in the present government.

There were huge expectations when Amitabh Bachchan had contested from Allahabad Constituency in 1984 and became a member. His close proximity to the Gandhi family had raised hopes that he would represent people well. However he too stayed silent on the rare occasion he attended the House. The Bofors scandal in April 1987 affected  him. Today, of course, he is not with the Gandhi-Nehru family, but with Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Other actors who made to the Lok Sabha were Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughna Sinha, Raj Babbar, Vinod Khanna and Dharmendra. A surprise entrant is Govinda who defeated the BJP veteran Ram Naik. How did these celebrities fare?

Shatrughna Sinha and Vinod Khanna both were inducted in his Council of Ministers by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Sinha earned fame more because of his wayward ways of dealing with health issues. Vajpayee had to shift him to a department that was less likely to attract attention.

Raj Babbar hogged the limelight because of his spat with the Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, accusing the latter of being a broker in the power corridors who had converted a party of socialists into a party of socialites. Of course one cannot get away by locking horns with a personality like the general secretary of Samajwadi Party.  He paid the price and was expelled from the party with accusations that he was working at the behest of the Congress leaders who were striving desperately to bring down the government of Mulayam Singh. Here was one actor that raised issues forcefully both inside and outside the Lok Sabha. 

A surprising entrant to the Lok Sabha was Jaya Prada, member from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh who defeated the stalwart Begum Noor of Rampur in a triangular contest and won the seat as Samajwadi Party member. Now even Renuka Choudhary cannot call her a bimbo as Renuka had done years earlier when Jaya Prada Nahata was member of the Rajya Sabha as a favourite of the Telugu Desham Party chief, Chandrababu Naidu.

Dream Girl Hema Malini as Rajya Sabha member is only glamour. Her tongue remains tied for the TV media, but comes unloose when she delivers powerful speeches written by script writers for election rallies.