New Delhi: Former West Bengal Chief Minister Siddharth Shankar Ray was trained at London’s Inner Temple before returning to register at Calcutta High Court in 1946. After entering active politics 15 years later, Ray but rarely appeared before the courts. But there was an exception. A rare exception in one case for almost two decades till he breathed last in December 2010.
At a condolence meeting in Ray’s memory organised in Lucknow, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) leader and Lawyer Zafaryab Jilani recalled his meeting with Ray in 1988. Ray heard out the board members with patience and gave his consent to represent the board in future hearings.
It was a consent he never withdrew till his death, SS Ray appeared for the AIMPLB in Babri Masjid Title Suit and did not charge a penny for it. His last appearance in April 2007 was before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court where the case was being contested.
Ray, generally accompanied by the wife on his trips to Lucknow, would don his black gown for a day to argue the case and leave without anyone taking notice. The Congress leader and one of the closest aides of Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi thus rendered his services for free out of his conviction on the issues he may held close to his heart.
A decade later, when the same title suit after adjudication from the HC reaches the Supreme Court, the line between politics and appearance of a lawyer for a client he/she represents has been bedaubed in a sharply polarised polity. Former Union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal’s assertions before the court as the counsel for AIMPLB have been taken as official stand of the political party he represents in Parliament.
Sibal has reportedly been told by the party leadership to give up this one case whose political overtones in the run-up to the 2019 general elections may give a handle to the opposition to attack the Congress. In a highly polarised media environment engendered both by ignorance and brazenness — the Congress is worried that Sibal’s argument before the court may be attributed to the party.
But that was never the case a decade back when Ray appeared in the Babri Masjid Case even at the peak of temple politics in the Hindi heartland.
The Congress’ apprehensions probably emanate from the fact that the party in the last two decades has conceded Right of the Centre space to the BJP. The Congress at its Delhi plenary has admitted that Rahul’s temple run is aimed to neutralise BJP’s Hindutva. There are attempts by the Congress opinion makers to trigger a debate to delineate Hindutva as a political ideology from Hinduism.
Politics is about perceptions, and it takes decades to make and destroy existing ones. The Congress has put into motion a course correction- an exercise in the collective.
Sibal the politician, a known face representing the party, has been asked to comply and contribute.
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