Roaring On Screen, Whimpers Off-Screen: Sunny Deol And Shatrughan Sinha Remain Silent In Parliament

The macho heroes of Bollywood known for their thunderous dialogue delivery that shakes up theatres have turned out to be timid and meek off screen. Film stars Sunny Deol and Shatrughan Sinha are among nine members of parliament who did not utter a single word in the Lok Sabha. Out of the nine members, six belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four belong to Karnataka.

According to reports, speaker Om Birla reached out to the members who had not spoken in the Parliament. Despite approaching Deol twice, nudging him to speak, including in the Zero Hour when national issues were raised, Deol refused to open his mouth.

While first-time MP Deol, representing Gurdaspur, did submit questions and written submissions during his tenure, Shatrughan Sinha, elected in bypoll elections on April 2022, along with two other MPs, did not even do that.

Apart from Deol, other BJP MPs include Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi (Bijapur SC, Karnataka), BN Bachegowda (Chikkaballapur, Karnataka), Pradhan Baruah (Lakhimpur, Assam), Anant Kumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada, Karnataka) and V Sreenivasa Prasad (Chamarajanagar SC, Karnataka). The TMC members Shatrughan Sinha (Asansol, West Bengal) and Dibyendu Adhikari (Tamluk, West Bengal) and currently jailed BSP member Atul Rai (Ghosi, Uttar Pradesh) also remained silent throughout their tenure.

While the others, though remained silent, did make a few written submissions during the Zero Hour, Sinha and Chandappa had no participation in the 17th Lok Sabha in any form. Atul Rai also maintains a similar track record although he has been behind bars throughout his tenure on allegations of rape and cheating. He was granted parole a few times

Deol and Sinha’s silence, intentional or not, does raise questions on the validity of celebrity figures making their way into the political arena and their failure in handling the responsibilities and expectations that tag along with their positions.