Hairsplitting began as soon as Sachin Tendulkar got nominated to Rajya Sabha. Television, newspapers and internet haven't got tired of filling their time, paper and bytes on this topic. Of course, most of these discussions are full of questions marks- 'why Sachin?', 'why without any political or social issue track record?', 'why not Saurav Ganguly?', 'does he even know that Rajya Sabha is not another IPL team?', 'what issues will he take up?', 'will he support anti-corruption movement or not?' 'was he pressurised by congress?', 'is a he being played by corrupt congress to improve it's image?' Questions, questions, question. Shut up people!!
The man is just nominated to Rajya Sabha and that too under Article 80 (3) of the Constitution of India which calls for nomination of people 'who special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely:-Literature, science, art and social service'. Till recently, everyone in the country has been shouting why cant they include sports in the list. Perhaps, they clubbed the sports with Art and hence Sachin could enter the upper house. I don't see that anyone will question that Sachin has has 'special knowledge' and 'practical experience' in his field. So I don't see why should there be any screaming and shouting about 'he does not have political background', 'he has not taken stand on social issues'. People, let us get clear on this- social or political work is NOT NECESSARY HERE! He is going to Rajya Sabha for his special knowledge and practical experience in HIS OWN FIELD! We want people who understand sports as it happens in the field so that they can give some real practical suggestions about policy making about sports and it is not left to the mercy of Sharad Pawars and Suresh Kalmadis who have not held a bat in their hand after age 15 to decide what is to happen to sports in India.
Some people have questioned whether Sachin knows anything about functioning of the parliament. Some people have even sank to the level of questioning if he knows that Rajya Sabha is not another IPL team (according to Jug Suraiya, this is supposed to be funny and we are supposed to laugh at it). To me it sounds outright condescending. I am sure that out our 1.21 billion population, it would be less than 5 lac people (that too would be an extremely liberal guess) who know, in and out of how parliament functions. Rest of the people know just the basic that we learn in our civics books. So please do not expect Sachin or anyone who enters to parliament to start referring to footnotes of rule books. He will learn like as so many others have.
Ramdev Baba (people still write about him in the papers) has been worried if Sachin was pressurised by Congress and he also wants to find out if he would be able take a stand on anti-corruption movement. Considering the money and popularity Sachin enjoys, I am sure he cannot be pressurised by anyone to accept Rajya Sabha membership. He has been pressurised to stop doing something which he loves the most- playing cricket, and he came fighting out of the corner and stood firm on his stand that he will retire when he wants to retire. This man has his own mind. In the same breath one can say that, he will take a stand on corruption or any other issue if he wants to take it. Leave it to him. And as an afterthought I can also say that, if Baba Ramdev did not have this stupid and illusiory idea of him becoming prime minister of India, he could have also been nominated to Rajya Sabha! But unfortunately some people have a grandiose self image and that spells a doom for their public career.
I heard some lamenting about 'Sachin joining a corrupt party' i.e. Congress. First of all, president's nominees don't have to join the ruling party. Congress is corrupt, so is BJP, so is third front. Does that mean we should stop the system of nominating people to Rajya Sabha through the President? Secondly, even if Sachin joins Congress Party eventually, as far as I know no political party has mandated that the new entrant has to sign an declaration saying that he or she will indulge in corruption. So let that argument rest.
The funniest comment was by the Communist Party of India, MP, Gurudas Dasgupta- Why Sourav was not offered Rajya Sabha membership? Now that is like making it very regionalistic. Why Maharashtrian, and why not Bengali. So he was asked if he was upset because it was not a Bengali, he said 'I am not Bengali, I am Indian'. Well Mr. Dasgupta, then why could you not think of so many other 'Indian' sports persons like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid etc. etc.??? Why only Sourav. Perhaps CPI now wants to woo the Bengali Manush by stoking regionalistic feelings. Should we take it as their new strategy against Mamata Bannerjee? Learning from Thackerays, are you?
Nevertheless, coming back to the main issue- Sachin has got Rajya Sabha membership as a president's nominee. If one looks at the history, most nominated members have not left a very lasting (or any) impact on the parliament (leaving aside a few like Javed Akhtar who really worked hard for his professional fraternity). To me it will be unfair to expect that Sachin will take historical stands on the burning issues of the country. I am just hoping that he would get an opportunity to do something for the development of sports in India and am confident that he will do a good job within his capacity. So people stop your ideas going wild on Rajya Sabha nominations let the man enjoy the honour that he has got.
PS- In the whole Sachin Tendulkar discussion people forgot to notice that Film actress Rekha has also been nominated to Rajya Sabha. Considering our Bollywood obsession about Amitabh and Rekha, I thought there would be much spicy discussion about Rekha and Jaya Bacchan coming face to face in the upper house :)
