Guess this personality by the clues given below. He’s the longest serving Member of Parliament’s Upper House but has no base, no constituency and no influence amongst India’s electorate.
He depends upon the “love and affection” of one family and his loyalty to The Family has kept him in power for the last 30 years.
He has no standing at the bar, lacks the brillance of a Kapil Sibal nor can he be counted an expert on constitutional law of the calibre of a Fali Nariman.
He was born in one state, was elected to the Rajya Sabha from another and his power-play is conducted from the third. He is a firm believer in the superiority of the Brahmin lineage and would go the extra mile to help and support all those who fall under this ambit, irrespective of party affiliations and never mind even if they are from the BJP-RSS basket.
He is Hansraj Bhardwaj – India’s Union Minister for Law and Justice. A man who has continued to grow and strengthen with each controversy that came his way. He is the legal torch-bearer for the Nehru-Gandhi family and has made himself indispensable to them. Categorized as a family retainer, there are some in the Congress party who whisper that he knows more secrets than he reveals.
One of his biggest assets and unique selling proposition is that he has legal records of almost all political leaders of the country. He knows which leader is embroiled in which case, how that can be leveraged to the party’s or the leader’s advantage, and when that information can be used.
It’s been a phenomenal rise from very humble beginnings – when his father was on the personal staff of Jawaharlal Nehru and he used to play in the staff quarters of Teen Murti Bhawan – to becoming the Union Cabinet Minister in the UPA government and tendering legal advice to Sonia Gandhi as well as handling most of the Nehru-Gandhi family’s legal affairs from filing nominations to sending out legal notices or bailing out the Quattrochis in the Bofors pay-off case.
Born in Haryana, Bhardwaj hit prominence when he appeared in the Golcha murder case as a lawyer. He was P Shiv Shanker’s junior during the Shah Commission hearings and became close to the team which defended Indira Gandhi. This included Sushil Kumar, who appeared for her, Madan Bhatia, PP Malhotra and others. When Dhirendra Brahmachari was embroiled in litigation over planes he imported, Bhardwaj jumped to his aid and through him got access to Mrs Gandhi.
Bhardwaj was part of the team which fought Sanjay Gandhi’s Kissa Kursi Ka case and he was entrusted with the job of breaking witnesses.
After the death of Rajiv Gandhi, he helped Capt Satish Sharma and together both the Gandhi loyalists were made Ministers in the PV Narasimha Rao government with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi. Not a mean feat for a man who swears by the Gandhis.
Much to the chagrin of Congressmen, he
allowed all NDA appointments of public
prosecutors to continue, did not remove
RSS-affiliated public prosecutors in Gujarat,
and took no stand on the Gujarat riots
It is this loyalty which peaked in January 2007 when Bhardwaj took the initiative to de-freeze the two London bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi, a personal friend of Sonia Gandhi and a prime accused in the Bofors payoffs. He did not consult the CBI which had gotten the accounts frozen. He was said to have been helped in this by another Gandhi loyalist, Suresh Pachauri, who was heading the CBI. Pachauri is another Brahmin leader from Madhya Pradesh known to be close to Bhardwaj. Pachauri declined to sanction the request of the CBI to allow one of its senior officers to accompany the Law Ministry’s officer to London.
For weeks the media feverishly speculated about the fate of Bhardwaj and Pachauri and predicted they would face the wrath of 10 Janpath. But the media had got it all wrong.
Whether it is the issue of judicial appointments or appointments in the law ministry, Bhardwaj’s choices have always been less than savoury. At a time when both Justice Bhalla and Justice Vijender Jain were not cleared for chief justiceships, Bhardwaj not only stood up for them but ensured they were appointed.
Much to the chagrin of Congressmen, he allowed all NDA appointments of public prosecutors to continue, did not remove RSS-affiliated public prosecutors in Gujarat, and took no stand on the Gujarat riots. Worse, he has been instrumental in the appointment of many judges during his tenure who hail from BJP-RSS backgrounds, including the son of former BJP minister Jagmohan.
Even his own team is a mixed bag, ranging from Additional Solicitor General B Dutta, who went to London to de-freeze the Quattrocchi accounts, to PP Malhotra, whose exploits cannot be put into print, and Attorney General Milon Banerjee who is known never to appear in court (when the Supreme Court gives a notice, he sends Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam).
But criticism hardly bothers the man whom many love to hate. His Cabinet colleagues say that the government takes his legal advice seriously only when it conforms to the advice of other legal eagles in the Council of Ministers.
There are others, however, who praise Bhardwaj for going out of his way to help those who come to him. If he cannot help, the blunt and fast-talking Law Minister has no qualms in saying so.
While he does not interfere in day-to-day Congress politics, he operates in his own limited sphere and has a close band of fellow Brahmins for company whom he consults.
In Madhya Pradesh politics, he was instrumental in bringing down Arjun Singh from the state chief ministership and installing Motilal Vora. They remain close to date. Known to be allergic to Arjun Singh, he has been a bitter opponent of his OBC reservation brand of politics and has been heard saying that he would soon put him right.
But being a member of Sonia Gandhi’s coterie has ensured that, after four terms in the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, he was given a fifth term from Haryana. His son was the legal counsel for Robert Vadra when the latter disowned his family. He will continue to remain relevant as long as the family backs him and as long as leaders continue to be embroiled in matters not strictly of the legal kind.
