Lawyer Prashant Bhushan: Some people I like

Supreme Court Lawyer Prashant Bhushan at his home in Delhi

Supreme Court Lawyer Prashant Bhushan at his home in Delhi

(The pictures are part of a magazine shoot I did with Mr  Bhushan.)

The last time I heard of Supreme Court Lawyer Prashant Bhushan was through the monotone of a television anchor.  The very self-assured and smug Arnab Goswami of Times Now, during one of his in-house kangaroo court sessions had  turned to the studio camera and said,  “ I hope Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan are listening. We haven’t invited them to our show because they are disgusting’’.  This was a debate on the aftermath of 26/11 and Prashant Bhushan bore  Mr Goswami’s ire for defending Roy’s freedom of speech.

What hope , I thought when the media itself parades its prejudices so brazenly. Thankfully there are men like Bhushan who have not given up asking uncomfortable questions.

But despite the media shunning him, this was not the last time I would hear of Mr Bhushan. He has been in the eye of the  storm for his tireless crusade for justice whether through his Public Interest Litigations (PIL’s ) or lending his voice to the marginalized. He is known as an `activist’ lawyer who openly declares his sympathy for the Maoists who he says have been pushed to the wall by an indifferent State. How can one blame them now if they have picked up the gun he asks. He was slapped with contempt of court for declaring  that half of the 16 Chief Justices of India are corrupt. However he backed his allegations by submitting a supplementary affidavit in the Supreme Court of India. He is also writer Arundhati Roy’s lawyer defending her against the sedition charges she was threatened with when she said Jammu and Kashmir was never a part of India. He forced a Supreme Court monitored investigation into the 2G spectrum scam helping open the can of worms and appeared for a PIL against Chief Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas leading to his dismissal.

Prashant Bhushan along with his equally illustrious father Shanti Bhushan is the co-founder of Campaign for Judicial Accountability and  Reforms. Bhushan is also part of the team that  drafted the Jan Lokpal bill for which Social Activist Anna Hazare sat on a fast unto death recently and roused the public to come out in its support in overwhelming number across India and abroad.    Now both of them are two of  the 10 men on the drafting committee of the Lokpal bill which hopefully will be readied soon.

However the `CD Controversy ‘ has erupted where Shanti Bhushan is purportedly telling Mulayam Singh how he can fix a judge for 4 crore rupees and Prashant Bhushan his PIL expert son can help with it.  It does not strike me as a coincidence that Amar Singh the well known shady political fixer is part of the CD drama. He has harbored a grouse against Prashant Bhushan for appealing the courts to release Amar Singh’s nefarious tapes to the public. Whatever be the reason I believe it is a smear campaign. Someone surely doesn’t want these two stalwarts on the drafting committee. Thankfully they did not step down. They are not the Lok Pal’s themselves.  They are only the members of the drafting committee and their legal genius will only be put to good use.

I met Prashant Bhushan at his house Noida that spoke of simple elegance. The living room had an old but expensive carpet and stodgy furniture and there were old Victorian paintings on the walls. Bhushan is an avid art collector. He is also a failed science-fiction novelist having written and discarded one such book  he wrote many moons ago.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan along with his equally illustrious father Shanti Bhushan is the co-founder of Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms. Prashant Bhushan has varied interests including arts. He likes collecting old paintings such as this one in his living room.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan along with his equally illustrious father Shanti Bhushan are two of the 10 men on the drafting committee of the Lokpal bill.

 

8 Responses to “Lawyer Prashant Bhushan: Some people I like”

  1. SC JAIN says:

    A NUMBER OF TIMES I READ IN NEWSPAPER ABOUT THIS GREAT LAWYER; WHO IS GREAT MAN FIRST.

    MAY GOD BLESS HIM WITH ALL HAPPINESS OF WORLD

    I PRAY FOR HIS LONG AND HAPPY HEALTHY LIFE

  2. Sarthak Ray says:

    Hi,

    We are a fortnightly magazine on governance, based out of Delhi. We need pictures of Mr Prashant Bhushan for an article in our upcoming issue (april 15-30).

    If you are interested, then could you mail us a few of your shots of him. We will credit the photographs to you in our magazine.

    You can reply at sarthak@governancenow.com

  3. Hari Krishna Prudhvi says:

    can you please send me the email id or his PAs number. I need to talk to hin regarding a PIL.

  4. smita patil says:

    my best wishes.& also want a mail id of Shri Prashant Bhushan

  5. Dear Mr.Shanti Bhushan ji,
    The latest decision of Anna team about going or not going political is learnt. As a well wisher of the team from the 22nd. state of Indian union I welcome the decision but not political. It is not necessary that you should form a political party to achieve the goal. It can be done without being political. As a person I felt the need right from the begining. There was massive upsurge which required direction which is not possible without an appropriate body.
    I request the team not to play into the hands of the evil minded political leaders who dared you to form political parties.
    I request you to set up a non-political body such as Indian National Peoples Committee with self limited term of ten years. You have to go to the people for a mandate of ten years for stream lining the irregularities. Your agenda should be framed in the format of terms of reference. A non-political body is less expensive and at the same time an armour against attacks from political parties and individuals. The people of all idealogies can join force. The National committee should have down leg committees such as Pradesh Committee, District and gram panchayat committees and so on. A non-political body of this kind alone can bring total revolution. The universities and colleges have to be roped in, in the first instance.
    Thanking you,

    karma Lhendup Kaleon
    919474648720

  6. Tejas Patel says:

    I am really angry on politicians/babus/netas who is scot free in many serious crimes & still committed.
    There are many issues which is not highlighted in public domain in country level.
    1) Toll tax on highways & it city areas are collected without any legal procedure. Just loot money from common people. After every few kms have to pay tax, why so ?
    They don’t display for tenure collection of toll tax. And haphazardly increase the amount. They are bide to have proper maintenance of the road/bridge but who cares. Netas/politicians are free to travel.
    2) Tinted glasses on cars/SUVs of all netas. Traffic department only shows their power to the common man. When they will continue a blind eye.
    3) Why not make all Govt. department & do complain/tracking with time bound action on internet.
    And it should made public so every other person will think twice before corruption.
    4) It will good that country will choose inexperienced candidates & they will do the rest for coming years. Already corruption made India far behind the developed nation. & people here lot to suffer for basic facilities.
    5) Our justice system, sometime shame on it. Simple cases also adjourned for last many years. Powerful people who committed crimes just roam around without any fear. Every hearing there will be delay just because of corrupted system only.
    6) Govt. officially not doing their job & if reported it will take weeks of months for proof& if someone slap on his face immediately action will taken, why ? because he was on duty. What rubbish.

    Every time we have to knock the door of Supreme Court..India is corrupted just because of politicians/netas.

    Jai Hind…

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