New Delhi: Lata Mangeshkar, a celebrated vocalist, had a brief stint in politics in between her iconic singing career. Like her career as a singer, her time in politics was not at all conventional. The thing that people remember most about her time as a politician is that, despite her reputation for being inconsistent in attendance and debate participation, she refused to accept her allowance.
An RTI found that the singer had returned every payment she had received from the Pay Accounts Office, according to an Indian Express report. She was elected on November 22, 1999, with the endorsement of the BJP, and she served in the House till November 21, 2005. In those six years, however, she only made it to 12 House sessions, and even then, not for the full day.
The singer only posed one question in her time in the Parliament, and it had nothing to do with the entertainment and film industries.
“I was often asked why I didn’t address problems related to the film industry in Parliament. In my defence, I can only say I was not connected with the entertainment industry to the extent that I could raise my voice against its problems. I am a singer, not a speaker,” she argued.
When questioned about her lack of interest in becoming an administrator, she stated in an interview, as reported by IANS,“My tenure in the Rajya Sabha was anything but happy. I was reluctant to be inducted into Parliament. In fact, I pleaded with those who urged me into the Rajya Sabha to let me off… What did I know about politics?”
Lata Mangeshkar was born in 1929 in Indore, to Marathi classical singer and theater actor Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and his Gujarati wife Shevanti. Over the course of her extraordinary seven decades-long career, she became the voice of several generations of Bollywood female actors.