Ram Jethmalani : The Authorized Biography

Brilliant, flamboyant and controversial—lawyer-politician Ram Jethmalani is all this and much more. In the past few decades, he has been consistently in the limelight for various reasons, both personal and professional. His defence of the smuggler Haji Mastan first earned him the sobriquet ‘smugglers’ lawyer’; his defence of Kehar Singh in the Indira Gandhi assassination case made front page news; his political choices, including his bid for the office of the President, earned him praise as well as derision; and the investigative zeal he exhibited in the Bofors case ensured that the issue stayed alive in public memory.

In this authorized biography, Nalini Gera attempts to capture the essential Jethmalani and acquaint readers with the man behind the public persona. The book dwells on all the different phases and aspects of Jethmalani's eventful life: his idyllic childhood in the 1920s and 1930s in Shikarpur in undivided Sind, his early years as a lawyer, the difficult post-Partition days, his enviable legal career, his roller-coaster political ride. And, yes, the women in his life.

Associated as Jethmalani is with the good life and glamour, it will come as a surprise to almost everyone that there is a deeply philosophical and spiritual side to him. The gregarious exterior hides an extremely private person, so much so that even his closest friends have not been privy to some of the most momentous decisions in his life.

Gera’s narrative is enriched by her personal acquaintance with Jethmalani, and interviews with his family and friends and with Jethmalani himself, who opens up with a candour that is almost unknown among people in public life. Meticulously researched and illuminated by moments of rare insight, this book explores the mind and career of India’s most famous political maverick, and in the process throws light on the major political and legal events that shaped post-Independence India.