The irrepressible life of Ram Jethmalani, who bent convention at every stage | The Indian Express

The irrepressible life of Ram Jethmalani, who bent convention at every stage | The Indian Express

Written by Maneck Davar |Updated: September 17, 2019 9:54:18 am

The writer, as a student, worked for the Janata Party in the 1977 elections that followed the Emergency

The irrepressible life of Ram Jethmalani, who bent convention at every stage

Ram Jethmalani defied and abhorred compartmentalisation. He wasn’t just an eminent counsel practising at all levels of the Indian judiciary, from the magistrate’s court to the Supreme Court, he was also an advocate of public causes and a politician of eminence.

The greater test of his indomitable courage and one which was fraught with grave personal danger was his defence of the conspirators in Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Kehar Singh and Balbir Singh.

On Ram Jethmalani’s departure to God’s lounge, memories, dating four decades, crowd the mind. The early, heady days in the aftermath of the Emergency, an election fought hard resulting in victory; the failed Janata Party experiment, one more election won after the rebirth of the erstwhile Jana Sangh as the BJP; the loss to Sunil Dutt in the elections after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the only time I witnessed him alone and dejected; and, his son Mahesh’s and my foray into legal journalism. And so the years passed by, with one battle after another. He was enriched by myriad experiences, political and legal, till his last few months when he lost the will to live. For a man who conquered life and triumphed over its every aspect, it was tragic to witness him in the winter of his life.