She may be Shayar ki Ghazal, she may be the Dream Girl for not just the BJP but for the whole nation but she was a nightmare to Kannada litterateurs. It was indeed a sad sight on Election Day to see Kannada writer Dr. K. Marulasiddappa, who contested against Hema Malini for the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat from the State on March 3, sitting all alone with no supporters to console him while the excited BJP members surrounded the Dream Girl. The photograph published in Deccan Herald brings forth the saying that the whole world loves the winner. It also makes us wonder why none of the more famous litterateurs contested and instead chose to stand back and give press statements.

Hema Malini gets just over one year in the incomplete term of Rajashekhar Murthy, the JD (S) leader who passed away on December last year. Hema Malini’s victory was almost assured in the 225 - seat Legislative Assembly where BJP has 105 and the Opposition 98 with one nominated seat and another independent seat.

Now, what is disappointing is that none of the Kannada fanatics did their bit for Dr. Marulasiddappa. Not even Vatal Nagaraj, who just a few days ago in a press conference said that Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, should not be invited to inaugurate the World Kannada Meet at Belgaum saying that Narayana Murthy had not done his bit in providing jobs to Kannadigas while forgetting the indirect job creation and revenue generation. He also said that Aishwarya Rai must not be invited because she “can hardly speak Kannada even though she is from Mangalore.”

Well, in that case, how come we didn't hear from the volatile Vatal as Hema Malini filed her nomination against a Kannada writer? After all, Hema Malini is a Tamilian. She too, like Aishwarya Rai, cannot speak Kannada. Why didn’t Kannada groups pressurise the State government to have a local representation?

Instead of creating a lobby for local representation, our politicians were happy to have Hema, who once elected, would go back to Delhi and never come back to bother them; after all, she is not important to them like an MLA is.

But our State’s intellectuals like Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad and Baragur Ramachandrappa went berserk. Karnad said, "I respect Hema Malini. She's a great actress and there is no doubt about that. I have acted with her too. But as a Rajya Sabha member, her performance is zero. I went through the records only to find out that she hasn't asked even a single question in the RS. She is a “daddi, buddiyilla”. Do you want to support such duds?"

While he was being condescending and quite disrespectful in using words such as ‘daddi, buddiyilla’ (dumb and has no brains), he also can be accused for not being very cautious while reading her records because Hema Malini has asked 179 questions in the RS! But were they pertinent questions? We wonder. After all, it is not the quantity but quality of questions that matters and Karnad should have been looking for that.

Yes, it is right to expect to have a representation from one’s own State. But is it true that only a Kannadiga can do right by us? No, not necessarily. A good politician will do well to the people he represents, but the fear is that many Rajya Sabha members today are more there for status and self - promotion rather than service. Hema Malini may say ever so mockingly, “Branding me an outsider sounds very funny. As an artiste, I belong to the entire nation.” But we should be worried. More than this self - proclaimed “national asset” being a non - Kannadiga, we must be worried whether she will deliver, considering her past record as an RS member.

As per the Citizens' Report on Governance and Development 2008 - 09 by the civil society organisation National Social Watch, Hema Malini had just 10 per cent attendance. But she did participate in the Upper House debates 15 times. Much better than her husband Dharmendra who never asked a single question, did not participate in any debate and had only 1.5 per cent attendance.

May be this is why Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, asked: "What is the need of the Rajya Sabha? There is already the People's House, the Lok Sabha which is also the Upper House. The Rajya Sabha was sacred and people who constituted the Rajya Sabha were people who couldn't fight elections like scientists, artists, writers and intellectuals. But now, people like the Kingfisher owner and others are entering the Rajya Sabha." Yes, Kingfisher’s Vijay Mallya, a Kannadiga, had a mere 7 per cent attendance at the Rajya Sabha. So it proves that a Kannadiga RS member does not necessarily guarantee good service for Kannadigas.

Also, we must note that until recently, local representation was required. However, the rule was changed in 2003. The Rajya Sabha Practice and Procedure booklet states, “It may, however, be mentioned that the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2003, which amended Section 3 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has done away with the requirement of being a resident of State or Union territory from which a person seeks to contest elections to Rajya Sabha. He/She has to be an elector in a parliamentary constituency anywhere in India.”

So our leaders did not waste time in making life easy for themselves. With this amendment they have pushed their own wherever they have majority. No wonder then that Venkaiah Naidu, an Andhra politician, contested from Karnataka, no wonder Dharam Singh vacated his seat so C.M. Stephen, a Kerala politician, could contest from Gulbarga Lok Sabha Constituency and no wonder Sonia and Sushma fought over Bellary.

But when a person is elected locally, the pressure to perform is higher. An outsider, on the other hand, has no pressure; if his people are not happy with him, he does not care as during the next election he will simply stand from some other State. Indira Gandhi beat State leader Veerendra Patil and represented Chikmagalur; but how much did Chikmagalur develop? Sonia Gandhi won from Bellary and what has happened in Bellary?

So the question is not of whether one should be a Kannadiga or a non - Kannadiga but of whether we are effectively represented at the Centre. A local representative tends to be under pressure as he is answerable and accountable, hence preferred. After all, he has to come back and live amongst his own. An outsider does not feel this kind of pressure and tends to be nonchalant. When is the last time Sonia or Sushma came to Bellary to see the state of the people there? So we may have the Dream Girl representing us, let’s just hope it does not become a nightmare for us.

Vikram Muthanna
vikram@starofmysore.com
Courtesy: Star of Mysore

Click here to go to the main page of Star of Mysore.
Click here to go to the main page of Mr. K. B. Ganapathy.
Please send your opinions, feedbacks, articles to shshenoy at yahoo.com