On March 30, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal raised the issue of nominated members remaining absent from the House proceedings for a long period of time.
What is the point of having Star members in the parliament when they are not to be seen? This question on the continuing absence of nominated members is finding resonance among many regular members in the Rajya Sabha.
On March 30, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal raised the issue of nominated members remaining absent from the House proceedings for a long period of time. He said that he has not seen eminent members of the Upper House such as cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actor Rekha attend the proceedings in the current session.
Agarwal asked the chair whether the nominated members of the Upper House continue to remain absent from the House. He even said that they should resign if they were not interested.
Rekha’s attendance in the Rajya Sabha has been around 5 per cent while that of Sachin has been 8 per cent in the last five years. Both of them were nominated in 2012 by the previous Congress-led UPA government. Their attendance is far below the national average of 78 per cent.
Several politicians agreed with the sentiments expressed by Agarwal. BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha member, Chandan Mitra said if nominated members like Rekha and Sachin brought glamour to Parliament, they could have contested the Lok Sabha elections. Had they not attended the House proceedings, they would have been pulled up by their party.
Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Chandrashekhar said nomination of eminent personalities was an honour that the President and the people of the country give to someone. He did not demand resignation of the absentee nominated MPs but said they should come to House more often.
Lyricist and another former nominated Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar said Rekha and Sachin might have been “arm-twisted” to accept the nomination.
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 "Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha")
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