RAJIV GANDHI HAD FAITH IN THE FATE OF SOME STARS

Ali Peter John

They say a calamity or a crisis throws up and unexpected leader and that is just what happened when Mrs.Indira Gandhi, The Prime Minister Of India was brutally assassinated by her own security guards on October 31,1984 and the Country was thrown into the kind of turmoil it had rarely faced before. And if there was one political party that were caught at an unexpected crossroad it was the Congress. The party was not prepared to have a leader who could be a prime minister and they hurriedly appointed Mrs.Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi, who was flying with Indian Airlines to be the PM even as his mother's body was lying in State .Prime Minister Gandhi ruled till he had to call for general elections in the midst of all the strife that his mother's death had caused. But the need of the time was to have elections all over the country....

Rajiv Gandhi had his own plans and strategies to take on the opposition and one of the ways he found was to titsome big film stars against some formidable leaders of the opposition. After a great deal of deliberations, he decided together with the Party to field Sunil Dutt, an old friend of Mrs. Gandhi against Ram Jethmalani
from the Bombay North West Constituency, Amitabh Bachchan against Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna from his own seat of Allahabad and Vyjayanthimala from a prominent constituency in South Tamil Nadu.

There was stiff opposition to Mr.Gandhi's move from within the Party, but he went ahead with his idea and the result was that all the three stars won with thumping majorities in all the constituencies.

Amitabh Bachchan who had not only defeated but also decimated Bahugunas career as a politician who in fact even died a few months after he lost . Amitabh lost interest in politics because of his being drown into the Bofors Guns scam and quit politics for good, but not before calling it"a "cesspool ".

Vyjayanthimala could not make any mark as a member of parliament and was not allotted a second term. But Sunil Dutt was the only one chosen by Mr.Rajiv Gandhi who lived and worked like a true Congressman and a great good samaritan for four long terms and ended up being made a Minister of State for Sports when he was seventy five and he still worked in a way that could put younger politicians or even young sports persons in the shade .His sudden death was a big blow to the Congress and to all human causes he stood for. His seat was then given to his daughter, Priya Dutt who won with a clear majority the first time, but lost when the so called Modi wave swept across the country.

The falling superstar Rajesh Khanna was also brought into politics by Rajiv Gandhi and he created a stir in political circles when he was pitted against the BJP stalwart L.K.Advani who got jittery and changed his constituency from N.Delhi to Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat. Khanna won the elections when he had to fight his own colleague from the Industry Shatrughan Sinha but he too could not make a mark as a politician. Govinda took on the giant of the BJP in Bombay, Ram Naik and almost ended the veterans political career and had to be satisfied with being appointed the Governor of Uttar Pradesh and was not in the limelight again. Govinda did not visit his constituency even once in six years and had to voluntarily back out from the contest during the elections of 2014.

It was the first sensible step he had taken in his life and career. Rekha went to the Rajya Sabha as a nominee of the Congress and so did the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar the two hardly attended any sessions of the house. It has to be seen whether the Congress still has the kind of faith Rajiv Gandhi had in the fate of the film stars in politics.

It must be said to the credit of Rajiv Gandhi that it was his initiative in bringing film stars to politics that encourage other parties to have stars in their parties. The BJP under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had stars like Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha who were even made Union Cabinet Ministers with important portfolios . The stars who joined the BJP brigade were Dharmendra (who was the MP from Bikaner and who once told me that it was a very disgusting experience for him and he had to spend sixty lakhs of rupees from his own pocket to keep the people of his constituency happy ),Hema Malini, Paresh Rawal, the Bengali actor Tapas Paul, Kirron Kher and the latest and according to me the most innocent politician,Sunny Deol.

2024 is and may be one of the most important elections of Independent India, especially after we have seen the kind of politicians we have and the kind of dirty games they play, especially at a time like a pandemic.

What kind of leaders will we have in the future ? Will we have the same leaders that are playing havoc with this country or will we have leaders who will build a better India and inspire Indians to be better Indian than being better (worse)Hindus and Muslims ? And will the Khans, the Kumars and the Devgans stand up and fight for a better India or continue to live in their bungalows and keep making their crores ???