Rajya Sabha’s nominated MPs: Do they conform to Nehru’s idea of excellence?

Rajya Sabha is where there are more politicians than there is hope for elders and statesmen — who bring wisdom and add gravitas to the debates, so that the nation can benefit from their services. This gap is filled by the president by nominating 12 such distinguished persons to the Upper House. Of these, in the latest set of additions in April, one was Navjot Singh Sidhu — the former cricketer, and a politician. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Monday because, as he said, it was a “burden” he “preferred not to carry” — obviously for political reasons. From all that has been said and heard so far, the reason could be the political scenario of Punjab — a poll-bound state where the Aam Aadmi Party is seen as a strong contender for power. In 2014, Sidhu had to give way to Arun Jaitley in his constituency of Amritsar. If his eminence was important in law-making discussions, it would have allowed him to contest and they would’ve found another seat for Jaitley. [caption id=“attachment_2830248” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Now it has become clear that Sidhu’s nomination was BJP’s way of bringing in a person who may have been sulking, using the nominated route — not that this was the only example of such a nomination by a political party. Article 80 of the Constitution allows nominations by the president, but it cannot be that all those who enter via this route are the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s choice. Like in the past, as with other presidents, Pranab Mukherjee too would have signed the papers for nominees suggested by the government. Though Sidhu was a politician, like Mani Shankar Aiyar was, and is. Way back in 1953, when the first set of nominated MPs were inducted into the Rajya Sabha, Jawaharlal Nehru had said, “They, if I may say so, are among the most distinguished, taking everybody in Parliament altogether — it is true, distinguished in arts, science, etc. — and our Constitution in its wisdom gave that. They do not represent political parties or anything, but they represent really the high watermark of literature or art or culture or whatever it may be.” Over time, the Rajya Sabha has seen many eminent people on its membership rolls. Many chose to remain independent in that they do not exercise the option of joining any party within six months of their nomination, which the Article 99 enables. Such individuals ensure that the constitutional purpose of men of wisdom and eminence is served by providing their intellectual strength to the debates, which shape the laws of the land. Those who joined a party, remained politicians, even if they were left in the wilderness later. In this context, it is heartening to see a report in Loksatta , a Marathi newspaper, that Narendra Jadhav, an economist and former VC of Pune University, may not want to exercise his option of joining a political party. Normally those who join go to the ruling party. He does not want to be governed by the whips of the political party he could join. So has, at least as of now, Sambhaji Shahu, a scion of the Maratha family of Kolhapur. Shahu told the newspaper that so far he had not received any proposal to join any party, and that he would decide only after something comes up. It could have a lot to do with the local Maharashtra politics — as the Nationalist Congress Party sees him as a Maratha face, and so does the BJP. His inclusion in the category of Article 80 nominations was one of the biggest surprises. Subramanian Swamy joined the BJP soon after being sworn-in — he has proven to be an embarrassment to the governor and the party — and an indirect chiding was needed from Narendra Modi in a television interview to calm him down. That none of the other nine nominated members have exercised the option of moving to a political party yet, especially when an increased BJP strength in the Rajya Sabha would be useful to the party struggling to get its Bills through, is interesting. One has already left. Of course, there have been serious questions raised about the usefulness of some of the nominated members — like Sachin Tendulkar, who does not participate in the proceedings, and Lata Mangeshkar, who did not attend the sessions. It is perhaps here that the choice of a person suited to the purpose intended is important. An eminent person has to contribute, like Javed Akhtar has done in recent times.