{"id":21215,"date":"2014-04-20T11:34:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=21215"},"modified":"2015-08-28T17:54:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T12:24:29","slug":"lok-sabha-elections-2014-can-celebrities-shine-through-political-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/politics\/lok-sabha-elections-2014-can-celebrities-shine-through-political-darkness","title":{"rendered":"Lok Sabha Elections 2014: Can Celebrities Shine Through Political Darkness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

They rule the box office and the hearts of millions of Bollywood lovers. Their names are crooned among the fans. Then, they are swept away by the vortex of politics. \u00a0From Prithviraj Kapoor<\/strong> to Nargis<\/strong> and Shatrughan Sinha<\/strong> to Hema Malini<\/strong>, film personalities have been climbing up and down the political ladder since the 60s. Be it Dev Anand<\/strong>\u2019s rabble-rousing speeches or Rajesh Khanna<\/strong>\u2019s fight against LK Advani in New Delhi, Indian politics has seen all the off-screen actions.<\/p>\n

Celebrity quotient is equally high in Lok Sabha elections 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If we keep aside the old horses such as Vinod Khanna<\/strong> (BJP) and Raj Babbar<\/strong> (Congress) there are a good number of newcomers vying for victory. While singer Sukhwinder Singh<\/strong> intends to make \u2018Jai ho\u2019 the theme of his poll campaigning, Gul Panag<\/strong> (the former Miss India) is seen on her Enfield as a part of campaigning spree. As an AAP candidate, she is going full throttle to connect with the voters in Chandigarh. Her BJP rival, Kirron Kher<\/strong> could be having sleepless nights. In fact, the whole gamut of celebrities from Paresh Rawal<\/strong> (BJP) to Mahesh Manjrekar<\/strong> (MNS) and Nagma<\/strong> to Rakhi Sawant<\/strong> is ruling the google kingdom as well. They are among the highly searched candidates this election.<\/p>\n

Going by the interviews of celebrity candidates and the sloganeering, I gather that the common objective that binds all of them is \u201cGood governance\u201d. \u00a0Perhaps, that\u2019s precisely why Rakhi Sawant\u2019s Rashtriya Aam Party<\/strong> (RAAP) pleads \u201cEk baar mauka dijiye\u201d (Give us one chance).<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s some uneasiness that\u2019s brewing amidst all this. \u00a0Riding high on popularity index is certainly a good sign. But going by the past progress reports of celebrity-turned politicians in India, there are strong reasons to worry. \u00a0In most cases, Bollywood\u2019s charm couldn\u2019t overcome the challenges that political terrains threw at them. \u00a0Despite managing to attract crowds during campaigning, the clout of these celebrities waned after a brief period. \u00a0Some of them never put an effort to \u2018fit in\u2019. Their significance fizzled out in no time.<\/p>\n

After every five years, political parties queue up to rope in celebrities for the elections. But do they look for any other parameters other than the star appeal while zeroing on someone? If not, they are doing no good to their party\u2019s cause. Charm is short-lived but political wisdom stays on for decades. Barring a handful of politically aware actors, the rest all seem faraway figures in politics. In a recent survey conducted by a journo, the gaping ignorance of a long stream of celebrities got exposed. While one didn’t know when and how her party was formed, the other fumbled when asked to name India\u2019s first president.<\/p>\n

This abject ignorance doesn’t augur well with the voters. At least I feel so. We don\u2019t want them to be general knowledge freaks or a political encyclopedia, but can\u2019t we expect them to know the bare minimum. \u00a0India can\u2019t afford another generation of poorly-informed leaders because the country needs to be run by competent people who can understand and meet the expectations of both the elites and the unlettered populace.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time that political leaders use discretion while doling out poll tickets to these stars, because not all of them can shine the brightest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read Also:\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAccidental deaths of political Leaders<\/a>
\nTop 5 Indian political leaders who were assassinated<\/a>
\nWhat is Wrong With Indian Politics?<\/a>
\nShould Politicians Be Judged Based on Their Private Lives<\/a>
\nShould Politicians in India Be Educated?<\/a>
\nWhere are the good politicians in India?<\/a>
\nDo you think politicians\u2019 attires can fetch vote?<\/a>
\nFamous People in Politics<\/a>
\nHonest political leader<\/a>
\nIndia Politics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They rule the box office and the hearts of millions of Bollywood lovers. Their names are crooned among the fans. Then, they are swept away by the vortex of politics. \u00a0From Prithviraj Kapoor to Nargis and Shatrughan Sinha to Hema Malini, film personalities have been climbing up and down the political ladder since the 60s. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3964],"class_list":{"0":"post-21215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-general-elections-2014"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48858,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21215\/revisions\/48858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}