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THE NATION:
RAM JETHMALANI
New
Ramayan
As
the former law minister punctures the egos of his enemies in a book of
revelations, his own gets unreasonably inflated in the process
By
S. Prasannarajan
The
righteous Ram, wronged by an unjust system, stood there with his testament
of truth. It was the night of unsolicited victimhood, and his words burned
in the fire of anger, and he played out his sudden loneliness to a sympathising
jury of B-list pols, socialites, reporters and friends. He held aloft
the cause, a bound volume of conspiracy-against-the-courageous, and he,
the dimunitive casualty in a black suit, declared in stentorian panache:
truth has not prevailed. Translation: Ramchand B. Jethmalani may have
lost the chair, but not the case, dear.
 Going
by that night at 2 Akbar Road, Delhi, Jethmalani-sacked law minister,
flamboyant criminal lawyer, part-time politician, occasional dissident
and column-hungry preacher-has certainly not lost the argument, though
truth was not as conspicuous as wine and kabab. And the testament, Big
Egos, Small Men (Har-Anand, Rs 295), is supposed to be a chronology of
factors that led to his resignation as law minister on July 22 this year.
Though the author's description of this hastily manufactured screed of
killers' deceptions and victim's nobility is: "This is ... not my
dying declaration either to furnish evidence for the conviction of my
political assassins. I know my end is not far but I do not believe it
is imminent. Besides I do not feel I am the victim. It is our Constitution
and our political system that have been badly mauled."
But the
mauled in this book are his "assassins"-the chief justice of
India, Adarsh Sein Anand, attorney-general, Soli Sorabjee, and Jethmalani's
successor as law minister, Arun Jaitley, though, towards the minister,
a "younger brother", he is rather kind.
Well, he
has known Anand for more than a quarter of a century. He was a "perfectly
normal human being who showed remarkably good manners while sitting on
the Bench and moved with modesty and social grace in any company when
off the Bench."
When did
Anand cease to be a normal human being and lose his good manners? As laboriously
elaborated in this book, when it came to Jethmalani's notice that Anand
had "lied" about his date of birth (subsequently though, it
was proved to be a false allegation), that he injudiciously encroached
into the realm of the executive (appointment of the MRTP chairman), that
he was not particularly judicial in a land deal involving his wife, that
the chief justice was greatly responsible for Jethmalani's ouster.
Hence these
dire words: "It would be a sad day for Indian democracy when a law
minister becomes more courteous to an unreasonable chief justice than
I was. The chief justice left me in no doubt that he was trying to force
his way into a sanctorum where he had no business to enter. He had also
left me in no doubt ... that he had made himself a party to a plot to
secure my exit from the Cabinet." Along with the chief justice was
the attorney-general, who has been his "friend" and Jethmalani
has exhibited his "friendship at every stage until he (Sorabjee)
made himself totally unworthy of it".
How? Professionally
as well as personally. Sorabjee wanted to be on the Constitution Review
Commission despite Jethmalani's strong view that a law officer of the
government should not be included. "I fairly told the prime minister
that Soli has the strong support of L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley. What
kind of friend must he be if he expects me not to express my candid views
even to my own prime minister?"
Pg.2
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