Do celebrities deserve of representing people in Parliament?

Sachin Tendulkar, a name highly revered for many Indians and a personality even comparable to god for sports aspirants and upcoming cricket players. Well, he has earned his name for himself! The Bharat Ratna recipient debuted at the age of 16 years and left his world cup career in 2014 at the age of 41 after winning numerous accolades for India. The eminent personality has been raving in social buzz these days for not attending parliament for long time. Last time, Sachin attended the parliament in December 2013.

Yesteryear Bollywood actress, Rekha has also been mentioned of not attending the parliament after February 19, 2014. Kanjivaram saree clad stunning actress has maintained herself in a manner that she looks exactly the same as she used to 15 years before. Congress party has appointed both the members for their contribution to sports and arts respectively but politics doesn’t seem to their cup of tea.

Not just this, they have also been questioned of insulting the Parliament and Indian Constitution by others members of the parliament. According to the article 104 of the constitution, if any member is absent from either of the houses for a period of 60 days, the position is considered to be vacant and both the celebrities have been accused of violating constitutional provisions. There is a development fund given to every MP for the development of their local area which they represent and each member is entitled to spend Rupees 5 crore from Members of the Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund. Rekha and sahin have spent zero money from the MP development fund for the welfare of the people.

Having said so, this is not the case with all the celebrities. Shabana Azmi, Shatrughan Sinha, Javed Akhtar and Dara Singh have attended the sessions regularly. In fact, Shabana Azmi has attended 113 out of 170 sessions of the Upper House.

All this leaves us to question If they don’t have time, why they dabble into it in the first place? Political parties need to be very careful while deciding whether celebrities should be given opportunities to represent people when they aren’t able to present themselves at the respected forums.

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