He IS popularly known as garam Dharam and now here’s something that may make BJP’s Bikaner candidate Dharmendra get hot under the collar. There are many in the NDA who are not in favour of the Bollywood He-man’s new avatar.While there may be murmurs of disapproval within the NDA, the first public outburst came from Food and Customer Affair Minister Sharad Yadav who said celluloid stars queuing up for political stardom is a farce. ‘‘They take a lot away from the seriousness of the campaign and the political debate it generates,’’ he said. ‘‘Yeh koi tamboo mein bamboo garne ka khel nahin hai (Politics isn’t about pitching bamboo poles to erect circus tent),’’ retorted the angry JD (U) leader at the press conference he was addressing at his Tughlaq Road residence. He had been asked to comment on ‘‘the Dharmendra affair that has resulted in so much of mud-slinging’’. Yadav said that whatever the case may be, Dharmendra should not resort to lies. He must tell the real truth about who his spouse is.‘‘Most of these people are unemployed,’’ said Yadav on film stars who are given tickets or who are campaigning in remote, far-flung constituencies. ‘‘They have been rejected by the industry and their best days are over.’’Yadav is angry because according to him, such film stars are making politics look like a dump-yard for rejects from other professions. He said: ‘‘You cannot become a politician overnight. Politics is about experience.’’At the same time, however, he would not blame his party’s senior ally, the BJP, for starting the trend. ‘‘There are three to four parties which have deemed it fit to give these people tickets,’’ he argued.Apart from film stars, Yadav also lashed out at exit polls. ‘‘India,’’ according too him, ‘‘has too many parameters and regional variations’’. No pollster can take all these variations into account, he added.
