Mani Shankar Aiyar wears many hats: a former minister, former bureaucrat, foreign policy expert and a regular on Delhi's party circuit as well as TV talk shows. A very erudite politician, but essentially a politician. Nobody would say, "Mani Shankar Aiyar? You mean, that author of books on secularism?" Yet, he has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha as a litterateur. This, after he lost Lok Sabha elections last year. Is this fair? Arguably, there are scores of people better qualified than Aiyar when it comes to literature. Even among our political leaders, there are many who have penned a book or two, poetry or memoirs of often debatable quality. But Aiyar would not recognise Narendra Modi as a poet though he has a collection of free verse to his credit.
More importantly, there is no accountability in such nominations. If not Aiyar, there might have been a card-carrying poet or novelist, who would have been chosen less for the quality of his/her works and more for his/her networking skills. There have been noted artists who have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha and then have even attended a few sessions, without making any intervention. What can they do when a few MPs rush to to the chair to snatch and tear the copy of a bill as we witnessed in the first half of the budget session? Thus, should we do away with the nominations to the Rajya Sabha or is there a need to fine tune the existing system?