Sanjay Dutt is in trouble again, this time for blurting out his famous filmy dialogues in an election rally. Apparently giving a jaadu ki jhappi and a puppy to Ms Mayawati is violation of Model Code of Conduct. A case has been booked against him (may be his 100th case that includes TADA, Arms Act, Relations with Underworld etc., in a strange way he had been practicing to enter politics from a long time and now he has attained perfection! ). May be in the topsy-turvydom of elections this will be forgotten but it does arise a very important question-why do we need a stars in politics? Or rather, why should someone vote for an actor just because in his heydays he did some movies with a social message and uttered some masala dialogues? Should that be the only reason to vote?
There are many successful actor-turned politicians down south like the legendary MGR who, till date, remains a phenomenon and, even after 22 years of his death, rules the Tamil Nadu political scene in the most spectacular way. Then there is M.Karunanidhi and J.Jayalalitha, the most prominent faces of Tamil Nadu politics, between whom, the power remains alternating. But up North there are hardly any actors who have contributed significantly to nation's politics or carved a place for themselves. It's the manner these actors approach politics that baffles me. For most of them, it's a career after they reach a stage when nobody cares about them in the tinsel-town. It's a place where they can exploit their looks, stardom, utter dialogues from hit movies which obviously are written by others and has nothing to do with ideology or even understanding the nuances of politics. It's a win-win situation for both the party and the actor as the former gets the crowd for its rallies and the latter gets a career. The very essence of politics is lost. They are mostly puppets, and sadly they are famous puppets.
This year we have many new celebrities in the fray, Sanjay Dutt (not as candidate), Shekhar Suman, Md. Azharuddin etc. The most famous and controversial is, obviously, Sanjay Dutt. With all his pending cases and rebel against his father's party and against his sisters, who stood by him in all his testing times, he definitely made it to the headlines. But let's forget about all that and let's assume that SC allowed him to be a valid candidate. Then? Was he a fit candidate? Is he guy with a political opinion? (Ideology would too much asking for!). Isn't he one of those people who could have joined any party which would have guaranteed him a ticket? Recently he was campaigning for a LJP candidate which is SP's ally. In the rally he forgot the name of the candidate he was campaigning
for and asked his name from a SP guy on the mike….guess who was the candidate? Ram Vilas Paswan…the President of LJP!!! What do you expect of these demigods? I have got nothing personal against him, but these are the things you associate with any star in politics. Replace him with Shekhar Suman and you would be asking the same questions again!
One thing that attracts people towards stars, apart from stardom, is that they are expected to be less corrupt and I totally agree with that. No star would normally be involved in a scam or any other criminal activity for sure. J. Jayalalitha being an exception of course, but it was probably politics that made her corrupt! But they are not taken seriously by their parties also. Barring, Shatrughan Sinha as Health Minister in NDA government, no film star has ever been given a significant post. They are just used as poster boys. They are not sincere in their work also. Take examples of 2 superstars who made their political debut in 2004 elections, Dharamendra and Govinda. The former has almost nil attendance in LS and has not visited his constituency Bikaner more than twice in 5 years while the latter has never raised a question in LS and of course his attendance is nil too. So why do we need them? Isn't it wastage of electoral process and an invaluable LS seat?
I normally criticize the politics or politicians, but this post is for all those who are enamoured by the star power of people from film or cricket fraternities. They are wasting a Vote, a Seat, Crores of Tax-Payer's money and , most importantly, they are wasting a chance to make an useful contribution to the nation.
Please think before you vote!
