Date:23/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/23/stories/2003012302001300.htm

National

Giving the forgotten their due

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI JAN. 22. In the rough and tumble of Parliamentary politics, the nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are more often than not elbowed out of the limelight by sparring politicians. And those who do manage to attract some attention do so not because they "represent the high watermark of literature or art or culture" as Jawaharlal Nehru put it, but due to their persona.

Such being the case, the general view has been that the nominated members have "adorned the seats of the Council of States without significantly contributing to the proceedings" even though Parliament records show otherwise, replete as they are with instances of their raising issues such as environment, animal rights and linking of rivers much before they gained currency.

To set the record straight, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has — in the golden jubilee of Parliament — chronicled some contributions of the 98 nominated members the House has seen till date.

An eye-opener-of-sorts, the 26-page document seeks to explain why the framers of the Constitution decided to nominate leading lights from various fields to the Upper House and how many of them justified their nomination.

From the first batch of nominated members emerged a President in the eminent educationist, Zakir Hussain, who as a member of the Upper House mounted pressure on the Government on educational matters. None of the other nominated members followed him to occupy the highest Constitutional office of the country, but their contribution — though forgotten — cannot be written off.

Take the case of Rukmini Devi Arundale, who in 1953 piloted a Bill to prevent cruelty against animals. So forceful was her advocacy of the cause that Nehru assured her that the Government would introduce comprehensive legislation.

The same year, another nominated member, Radha Kumud Mookerji, introduced a Bill to amend the law governing a Hindu childless widow's rights to property. Though it took another three years for Parliament to enact a law on succession incorporating the rights of childless widows, Rajya Sabha records show him as an advocate of gender sensitisation years before it became a politically-correct statement.

Though more recently Ela Bhatt's effort to sensitise the Government into formulating a national policy for hawkers and vendors did not meet with similar success, her views on Sati found their way into the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Bill, 1987.

Similarly, the suggestion to set up a Film Finance Corporation was first mooted by S.S. Sokhey in 1953 during the discussion on the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 1952, and the present-day emphasis on reducing the curriculum load found a keen advocate in cartoonist R.K. Narayan, who, very graphically, portrayed the plight of a child going to school like a "pack-mule" in his maiden speech.

While the journey back in time seeks to give the nominated members their rightful place in modern Indian history, it also shows that it was not the media and the people alone who have not given them their due.

Way back in 1952 itself, Mr. Mookerji lamented that "this House has been practically reduced to a debating society", picking up cudgels not just for the nominated members but the entire House.