Rekha, Anu Aga Will Also Join As Nominated Members
New Delhi: A Bharat Ratna might still be a little distant, but cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar will soon be an MP. This will be the first time an active cricketer, rather any sportsperson, has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha. On Thursday, the government nominated Sachin along with veteran actor Rekha and spunky business leader Anu Aga.
Sachin’s nomination to Rajya Sabha took political circles by surprise, even though it was in the works for a while. Cricket lovers too were bemused with many wondering how an active cricketer who is on the road for around 250 days a year be able to do justice to his parliamentary duties; and if he can’t, would this Rajya Sabha entry really enhance Sachin’s stature.
Senior government figures, including minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Shukla, have been in touch with Sachin for the past couple of weeks – obviously in the hope that Sachin’s acceptance of a Rajya Sabha nomination would help burnish the government’s credentials. The calculation appeared correct as no one, including the Opposition, had anything but a welcome for the immensely popular cricket star-.Sachin, it is said, had sought time to think over the offer. A week ago, he conveyed his acceptance to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The news of his nomination, along with that of Rekha and Anu Aga, broke when Sachin with his wife Anjali came to meet Sonia Gandhi at 10, Janpath in the company of Rajiv Shukla. Tendulkar's nomination comes after he completed a historic 100 international centuries in March this year. It is also seen by some cricket buffs as indicating his retirement in the foreseeable future. ‘Sachin won’t hang up boots’
New Delhi: However, when asked if Sachin’s acceptance of a Rajya Sabha nomination indicates a desire to hang up his boots, sources said, “No way. He is not retiring.”
The home ministry sent the names of Sachin, Rekha and Aga to President Pratibha Patil after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made the recommendations on Wednesday. Patil approved the recommendation on Thursday, leaving it for the Rajya Sabha secretariat to complete the formalities.
Fifty-seven-year-old Rekha, who debuted in the ’70s and ruled the Indian screen in the ’80s, has won several national awards in her acting career. Anu Aga of Thermax, who is also a member of National Advisory Council, shot into prominence after she came out to attack Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for failing to rein in the anti-Muslim violence in his state in 2002. The India Inc had preferred to be silent until Aga spoke out.
The names have been cleared against five existing vacancies in the Upper House under the ‘nominated members’ category. At present, there are seven nominated MPs, including lyricist and script writer Javed Akhtar and agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan.
It will also be interesting to see whether Sachin’s sense of appreciation of the RS nomination – as reflected in his thanksgiving visit to Sonia Gandhi – will lead him to join the Congress. Official sources said the home ministry has sent the name of Tendulkar under the “social service” category as sports is not specifically listed in fields eligible for nominations.
About Sachin’s nomination, constitutional expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap said there was nothing unusual about a sportsperson being placed in the ‘social service’ category. “It looks like stretching it a little bit, but the government had been doing it in the past,” he said.
Times View
Nominating Sachin to the RS may be a populist move, but it makes little sense. There is no doubt about Sachin’s greatness. A nomination to RS, however, should not be treated as a means of honouring eminent people but as a way to enrich parliamentary debate by having people with expertise in different fields. Nominating an active sportsperson defeats that purpose. The Indian team spent 292 days on the road last season and Sachin himself was on the road for 216 days. His new role will force him to choose between his duty to the team and his job as a parliamentarian. It’s an unfair choice, one we should not compel him to make.
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