Why did BJP field Kangana Ranaut from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh? The discussion intensified regarding the presence of film stars in politics. However, Kangana is not the first star who has been made a candidate by any party. In a democratic society, it is not possible to limit the electoral field to full-time political workers only. But the question has been raised as to how justified it is for cinematic stars to contest the elections. The reason for this is his less activity in politics. The person who wins the election is the representative of the people of his area in the Parliament. Therefore, it is his responsibility to work for the development and welfare of his area and become their voice on various platforms. If we analyze the process of emergence of stars in politics, two types of tendencies emerge.
In South India, the stars of the film world not only proved to be shining stars in the political sky, but also had a great influence at the grassroots level. The personalities who were heads of both the major parties of Tamil Nadu are examples of this. DMK chief M Karunanidhi was a screenwriter of Tamil films, but when he entered politics, he remained a politician. Within no time, he became such a face of politics, without whom the politics of Tamil Nadu cannot be imagined. Similar situation existed for AIADMK chiefs MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalitha. MG Ramachandran was a superstar of Tamil films, similar was the case with Jayalalitha. But after coming into politics, this couple also remained in politics only.
Nandamuri Tarak Rama Rao had a similar name in the politics of Andhra Pradesh. In the eighties, he started an anti-Congress campaign under the name Telugu Bidda and dominated the political sky of Andhra. He also played a big role in the central politics of the year 1989. The situation was different with cinematic personalities in North Indian politics. The hero of Mumbai cinema had a ‘larger than life’ image on the cinematic screen, but this image kept getting battered on the rocky ground of politics. In the 1984 general elections held after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Congress had fielded three big personalities of Hindi cinema – Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt and Vyjayantimala Bali – as its candidates, all three got victory. But only Sunil Dutt remained in the field. His political journey continued till his death on 25 May 2005. But after his name cropped up in the Bofors case, Amitabh resigned from politics. Vyjayanthimala also later separated from politics. Later two more names of Hindi cinema came – Rajesh Khanna from Congress and Shatrughan Sinha from BJP. Shatrughan got interested in politics, who is now with Trinamool Congress.
Union Minister Smriti Irani can also be kept in the tradition of Sunil Dutt and Shatrughan Sinha. Now politics is their only cover and bed. Be it handling the responsibilities of central ministries or supporting the BJP, he is more serious than other stars in both the roles. Jayaprada and Jaya Bachchan also entered politics through Samajwadi Party. While Jayaprada remained in the Lok Sabha, Jaya Bachchan is continuously in the Rajya Sabha. Hema Malini has been active in BJP for a long time. He has been MP from Mathura twice. She has also been in Rajya Sabha. Her husband Dharmendra was an MP from Bikaner in Rajasthan, while Dharmendra’s son Sunny Deol was from Gurdaspur in Punjab, but both of them did not like politics. In 1991, during the popularity of Ramayana serial, BJP fielded Deepika Chikhalia and Arvind Trivedi from Gujarat. Later both of them stayed away from politics. This time the party has made Arun Govil, who became popular by playing the role of Ram, its candidate from Meerut.
Vinod Khanna was an MP from Punjab and was also made Minister of State in the Vajpayee government. Bhojpuri film actors like Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Yadav Nirahua and Ravi Kishan are MPs from BJP. Actress Kirron Kher is an MP from Chandigarh. The party has sent Roopa Ganguly to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, while Bengali actress Locket Chatterjee is the party’s MP in the Lok Sabha. Trinamool Congress had last sent actresses Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan to Parliament. Earlier, BJP sent film singer Babul Supriyo to Parliament from here, later he joined Trinamool and is currently a minister in the state. The list of cinematic stars in the world of politics is long. But leaving aside the South, most of the stars were not selected so that they would be able to play a political role, rather they got a chance as a winning face. Only a few of them could face political challenges at the grassroots level. In such a situation, it is natural to raise the question whether in the world of democracy, shine is more important or accountability towards the people. (These are the personal views of the author.)