Cutting across party lines, lawyers continue to be the best bet for nominations to the Rajya Sabha. Over half-a-dozen lawyers have yet again been nominated by the political parties for the impending biennial elections to the Upper House.
From defending political bigwigs in crucial cases to putting up their respective party’s viewpoints backed with legal wisdom to manning key Ministries — these lawyers have been there and done that, except one, Vivek Tankha, a former ASG who is a political greenhorn.
Else, the likes of Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Ram Jethmalani and Satish Chandra Mishra continued to find favour for an entry into the Rajya Sabha. After a long gap, this time advocate RK Anand, once considered close to Congress ranks, has filed nomination for the Upper House from Haryana with the backing of the Indian National lok Dal (INlD).
The Upper House already has such legal minds like BJP’s Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad besides Bhupendra Yadav and NCP’s Majid Memon. In addition, nominated members include the doyen of constitutional law K Parasaran and noted criminal lawyer KTS Tulsi.
The Congress has nominated its two top legal brains — Sibal and Chidambaram — for the Rajya Sabha elections. When it came to defending Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi before the Supreme Court or the High Court in the National Herald case, Sibal remained the first choice. Sibal also led the legal battle for the Congress against the President’s Rule being imposed upon two democratically elected Governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The result was evident in Uttarakhand where the Harish Rawat Government was restored back while the final verdict on Arunachal is pending with the Supreme Court for a decision.
Chidambaram too has been visible in courts appearing in sensitive matters where the Congress seeks to expose wrongs in policies enacted by the Central Government. The latest instance was the Government’s decision to give Aadhaar a statutory backing by introducing it as part of a Money Bill in Parliament. Appearing for Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, Chidambaram played the legal strokes and nuances to ensure Supreme Court issues notice to Centre to justify their act. While Chidambaram is set to enter Rajya Sabha through Maharashtra, Sibal is eyeing on Samjwadi Party’s support for entry from UP.
But then Congress will miss in Parliament its outgoing MP and legal stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi, whose tenure comes to an end next month. In his place, the Congress has nominated another senior lawyer Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh. He enjoys tremendous political clout in the State and was an Additional Solicitor General during the previous UPA regime.
Joining the bandwagon of lawyers in the House will be veteran legal luminary and noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who this time will enter the Rajya Sabha as a nominee of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The decision has been taken by RJD chief lalu Yadav keeping in mind Jethmalani’s long association of representing the veteran Bihar politician in the fodder scam cases. He still represents the RJD chief in the matter before Supreme Court.
Interestingly, Jethmalani has been a Rajya Sabha MP nominated by the Congress-led UPA Government and has been elected on a BJP ticket too. RK Anand, the other veteran lawyer, who lost his senior gown since a sting operation showed him influencing a witness in the BMW hit-and-run case, is a top notch criminal lawyer and has to his credit defending some of the big names in politics, including former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao among others. His foray into politics was in 2000, when he entered the Upper House on a ticket from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s trusted lieutenant Satish Chandra Mishra also happens to be a senior advocate in Supreme Court. As Mayawati continues to battle PIls seeking reopening of the disproportionate assets case against her, Mishra has been re-nominated for a third consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha.