COM RI IMG PeeLIT 1G SHWETA BANSAL Foreword by FALI S. NARIMANTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER Abhishek Manu Singhvi9 ¢ ‘atch him! Catch him! I see Krishna.’ A four-year-old Abhishek Singhvi screamed out aloud as he saw a visage of Krishna in his shyam avatar standing not three feet from his bed. Singhvi was delirious with fever and the whole house was reverberating with chants and hymns for his speedy recovery. Sick due to some obstruction in his urinal passage, young Singhv’’s failing health had the whole family worried. Then, this near-death experience brought him to a moment of sudden insight: ‘God exists’ Singhvi isn’t sure whether it was delirium or he actually witnessed the Divine presence, but he recalls the image reassuring him that he would get better. Singhvi recovered soon afer. Born as ‘Manu’ Singhvi in Jodhpur, Rajasthan on February 24, 1959, in a tightly knit tradi- tional Jain family, he was the first male heir to be born to the Singhvis and he admits that if it weren't for him there would ‘be no Singhvi clan continuing in that sense.’ Singhvi’s dadi, Akal Kunwar, was convinced that he was her late husband, reincar- nated. It is therefore no surprise that Singhvi was a pampered398 COURTING POLITICS child. He admits to being a ‘naughty’ kid who, propelled by boredom, would often throw silverware and utensils from the balcony on pas- sers-by who more often than not would return these to the revered family. Although the alleys of Jodhpur haven't changed much in the intervening decades, the arcade where Singhvi once lived in is now a dilapidated wreck; nevertheless Singhvi’s love for the gourmet city is palpable. Another person who indulged Singhvi was his paternal aunt, Chandra, who was like a mother figure to him. She was whisked away to the United States of America, as one of its earliest emigrants, by a very good-looking Narpat Bhandari whom Singhvi called ‘Lipstick Uncle’ for his pretty coloured lips. The twitch of that separation still pricks Singhvi, yet his eyes light up remembering the love that Chandra Bua enveloped him in, Singhyi was born to LM Singhvi and Kamla Singhvi in an atmos- phere surcharged with poetry and literature. Singhvi’s lineage is rare and enviable as his father was a highly accomplished man with many talents, in Singhvi’s words an ‘over achiever’. Singhvi, always aware of his towering influence, struggled to carve his own niche away from his tall shadow. He shared a close bond with his mother, an accomplished writer in Hindi, with a keen intellect. Singhvi says she is ‘a very inter esting and fascinating woman’. A woman with steely determination in an era when women were expected to be coy and reserved, it was she who coaxed her father to approach the Singhvi family in Jodhpur. She was fascinated by LM Singhvi’s intellectual achievements and his tri- lingual mastery in Sanskrit, English and Hindi. Singhvi says his par- ents’ marriage was nothing short of a ‘fairy tale’. Kamla was growing up in a traditional Marwari business family of Kolkata and had heard of the young Turk, LM Singhvi, a scholar from Harvard University and she announced to her father that ‘she would only marry LM Singhvi or she would stay unmarried’. She travelled to the small village of Sardarshahar, in the Churu district of Rajasthan to the residence of her close relatives known to the Singhvis, where she first saw LMTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 399 Singhvi and was convinced of the correctness of her decision. As fate would have it they met again in Jodhpur and on one occasion when Akal Kunwar, her mother-in-law to be, lost her house keys and was looking frantically for them, it was the young Kamla who found them, winning her heart and a place for herself in the Singhvi household. LM. Singhvi and Kamla had a very successful marriage by societal stand- ards and for Singhvi it was nothing short of a ‘match made in heaven’. Growing up, he witnessed complete harmony between his parents and their combined love for the Hindi language and Indian culture fur- ther bound them together. Unfortunately, the Singhvi siblings can- not claim the same glory for themselves. Abhilasha Singhvi, Singhvi’s younger sister, is a social activist and lives with her mother in South Extension, in the first house bought by LM Singhvi. Abhilasha, after getting divorced from her husband Sunil Lalbhai, a businessman from Mumbai, took charge of the Manav Seva Sannidhi, a non-governmen- tal organisation, as its managing trustee. Abhilasha and Singhvi were very close as children and even now they go for occasional holidays together with their mother. Singhvi says that his sister can be ‘bossy and dominating’ at times, but they share a good camaraderie. Singhvi for his pare he is a lot like his mother, and picked up her organisational skills. Singhvi’s mother was ‘firm and hands on’, a trait Singhvi maintains with his own children Anubhav and Avishkar, both of whom are trained lawyers. Although he looked like his mother throughout his growing up years, he now looks more like his father. In court, like his father, Singhvi is a strong and effective communicator and like him shares a passion for writing. Singhvi published regularly, first for ThePioneer newspaper and later on with Shobhana Bhartia’s encouragement, for The Hindustan Times. Speaking of his columns, Bhartia, the woman at the helm of The Hindustan Times says, “The good thing was that his columns were non-political. They were very offbeat and nice and appealed to a very different target group. Which for me as a publisher was a great thing, because enough are willing to400 COURTING POLITICS comment and do a political narrative, When you belong to a certain political dispensation then your views are a little clouded, you have no option but to support what your party has done or not done. The advantage with Abhishek was that he never put on his political cap while writing. We wrose with a lot of passion, his entire breadth of column was right from all corners of quirky things to social events. He'd pick up some trend in society. He would pick up a book, some anecdote and sometimes he would just be ruminating. They were very readable and added a lot of diversity to the edie pages. Singhvi writes regularly on arcane but interesting topics and extended his reach in the year 2006 with the publication of his first book Candid Corner. Singhvi’s growing body of speeches and writings on India provides a useful summary of his insights into the country’s legal and political issues and there is hardly any topical subject that he has missed. Singhvi has vivid memories of his childhood in both Jodhpur and New Delhi. When Kamla was pregnant with Singhvi, his paternal grandmother was reading the Manusmriti authored by the myth- ological first man Manu and at that time Singhvi says, ‘Manu was considered God, even by women’. Many years later Nandita Haksat, daughter of the well-known lawyer PN Haksar, suggested to a young Singhvi that he should change his name, since Manu had a parochial view of women — namely that she is dependant on a man at every stage in her life. To Nandica, this was an unacceptable view and she strongly recommended that Singhvi drop his middle name. Singhvi chuckles recalling the incident and says, ‘Ie’s interesting how the generations change. My grandmother felt that he was the greatest law giver and Nandita Haksar felt that this was a disgrace.’ Singhvi was ‘Manu’ till he was 14, and after that his parents rechristened him as Abhishek, in consonance with Abhilasha, his sister. LM Singhvi was a learned lawyer, an eminent jurist, a parliamen- arian and a great statesman. He always wanted to do more than justTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 401 practice the law and had a strong passion for politics; he started his political career at a very young age. He returned from the United States of America, after completing his PhD, on the insistence of his father, DM Singhvi. Despite the western influence, LM Singhvi was rooted in Indian culture and was a devoted disciple of the political activist Kanhaiyalal Munshi. Both shared a common love for the law and Indian culture and Munshi involved LM Singhvi to establish the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the Indian. Law Institute, New Delhi. Munshi was convinced that LM Singhvi had tremendous potential and urged him to relocate to Jodhpur to try his hand at public life. Munshi predicted that a man like LM Singhvi would rise to great heights in a small city like Jodhpur where a Harvard scholar was like the ‘dodo bird’. He knew that his talent would give him the opportu- nity to serve people. Munshi’s prophecy came true and within no time LM Singhvi became the most sought after lawyer in Jodhpur, a man who single-handedly turned the family’s fortunes. Singhvi thinks that his father's decision to move to Jodhpur was ‘wrong’ as there was no comparison between the legal practice in New Delhi and Jodhpur. In 1962, LM Singhvi was elected to the Lok Sabha as an independent can- didate (without being affiliated to a political party) at the age of 31. As a High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, LM Singhvi witnessed India change four prime ministers - Chandra Shekhar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, IK Gujral, and Deve Gowda — but none attempted to unsettle his safely secured posting. However, his Lok Sabha election in 1962 was fraught with contro- versy and obstacles. LM Singhvi belonged to an old Congress and freedom fighter’s family. His father, DM Singhvi was one of the ear- liest elected members of the Indian Municipal Council. He and Jai Narayan Vyas, the second Chief Minister of Rajasthan, were insepa- rable and Vyas spent most of his time with DM Singhvi. DM Singhvi himself was a prominent lawyer and a prominent freedom fighter and a Congress party member and loyalist but due to ill health and poor402 COURTING POLITICS fate, he could not actively participate in politics. Most of DM Singhvi’s earnings were drained out in medical bills. Amidst challenging eco- nomic circumstances, DM Singhvi passed away at a young age of 49. Had he been alive he would have contested the national elections in 1962. However, it was LM Singhvi who was almost shortlisted to con- test the election as a Congress party candidate, but due to conspira- cies by the old guard, his candidature was compromised. Singhvi says, “Unfortunately seeing his rise in Jodhpur, all of my grandfather's close friends were extremely jealous of my father. They would pass snide remarks “kal ka chokra bahut aage badh raba hai.’ And these sitting MLAs were obviously worried about their seat. They knew that if he sets his foot in the assembly, there would be no place for anybody else. So they all conspired, went to Delhi, very famous names (I don't want to take the names), who were actually very close to my family and friends with my grandfather, and persuaded the Congress high com- mand to deny my father the Lok Sabha ticket. It was so universally understood that he would get the ticket that it came as a shock when he did not. When LM Singhvi overheard one of them, a very senior supposed friend of DM Singhvi, thar he didn’t allow his father to come up, he decided to stand independently on a zid.’So penniless and par- tyless, a 30-year-old LM Singhvi contested the 1962 elections against the millionaire heavy weight of the Congress, NK Sanghi, and success- fully made his way into Parliament. LM Singhvi filed election expense of Rs 11,000 that year and politically vindicated himself against the Congress brass. Ironically, within a year of being in Parliament, LM Singhvi was offered a ministership by Jawaharlal Nehru which he politely declined. He didn’t want to associate with a political party and again expose himself to betrayal and sabotage. A couple of dec- ades later, it was the young Rajiy Gandhi who on a very short notice, convinced LM Singhvi to contest on a Congress ticket from Pali but LM Singhvi lose that election. In 1998, Vajpayee, who shared a strong literary and philosophical bond with LM Singhvi, sent him to theTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 403 Rajya Sabha as a nominee of the BJP and LM Singhvi remained loyal to the BJP till the very end. Singhvi seizes every chance to speak reverentially of his father. ‘Whether he is talking about law or politics, Singhvi turns to stories involving his father and modestly averts that he is merely continuing on the path that he paved. Singhvi describes his father as ‘a man of extraordinary talent’ and feels that he will be happy if he has even a fraction of it. According to him his father was ‘a man of ideas and his political associations were entirely the result of a very fertile and imaginative brain.’ Singhvi had always seen his father dress in a sher- wani and often wondered why other children’s fathers never dressed. that way tll LM Singhvi clarified, ‘IFT have to be taken seriously in the Parliament, then I have to wear a sherwani.’ It’s no guess that Singhvi often followed the dress code during his own stint in Parliament. Despite the high regard for his father, Singhvi disagreed with him on many issues. He thought his father was ‘too middle of the road, tried too much to seck consensus, was easily fooled by form (read fawning flower-tongued backstabbers) and was too academic, slow and contemplative to keep abreast of changing, speedy times’ When Singhvi was four, LM Singhvi moved to New Delhi as a Member of Parliament. His illustrious career ensured the family was always in the throes of political activity. Vajpayee and Narasimha Rao were among the many stalwarts who were regulars at the Singhvi houschold. On one memorable evening, while LM Singhvi was the high commissioner at London, Lata Mangeshkar sang Vajpayee’s poetry at their home. It remains one of Singhvi’s most enduring mem- ories. Many years later when Singhvi was appointed the spokesperson for the Congress, he met Vajpayee at an event and was trying to avoid eye contact with him. Noticing that, Vajpayee remarked, ‘Arre maharaj kya kar rahe hain aap? Humare against vahan bolte hain yahan chup khade hue hain? Aayie'and he put Singhvi instantly at ease. Singhvi felt404 COURTING POLITICS Vajpayee and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were two people who had the quality of transcending political boundaries and ‘Vajpayee would win over his worst enemy with his grace, He might not even mean it. He may possibly have been insincere, but his warmth was compelling.’ Singhvi was sent 6 an all boys’ school, St, Columba's in central Delhi with a strong emphasis on academics. Though he was easily one of the wealthier students at Columba’s and artived in a chauffeur driven car while most others used school buses, he did not find it hard to fit in with his classmates. Throughout school, Singhvi remained an introvert, but he made efforts to change that by being an active par- ticipant in extracurricular activities. In school, he was comfortable to occupy the front row because he was sure of himself and unafraid to be asked a question. As a child, Singhvi was a doer. He was academically oriented and always a topper in school. Owing to his distinguished academic record, he was offered the OPOS scholarship, which took students straight from school to study in England. However, his parents sug- gested that he graduate in India as he was too young to be on his own abroad. Singhvi was far from staging a teenage rebellion. He has always achieved whatever he wanted, but with the consent of his elders. After all, he comes from a family that appreciated achievements and frowned upon transgressions. Singhvi’s home environment was ‘intrusive and controllii jinghvi was clearly in awe of his father in sharp contrast to the environment in which his children grew up, which is ‘free and argumentative, where everything is debated and discussed, definitely to a fault!’ However, Singhvi did have his weak moments. When he was in grade 10, the whole class decided to bunk school en masse and as the whole class was inching towards the hedge that led to the school exit, they found their mission intercepted by their class teacher who, con- sumed by shock, screamed ‘You too Abhishek!" (since he was the front ranker). In Columba’s, Singhvi build abiding friendships and considers Pankaj Sahai, Rajesh Sanghi and Vimal Bhandari as his closest friends.‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 405 In contrast, he admits there are fewer and genuine friends in law and politics, Some of the friends that Singhvi made during his stint as a parliamentarian are Supriya Sule, Jay Panda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Jayant Chaudhary, Anurag Thakur, and Ajay Maken. “The Singhvis lived in spacious houses in the posh areas of Janpath and Lodhi Estate and Singhvi was a regular face at the India International Centre. It is during his time at the India International Centre that he developed a close friendship with Jagmohan Malhotra, the former Lt. Governor of Delhi. Singhvi never faunted his wealth or life of pri self-conscious and very focused on developing his personality and he lege. Despite being conscious of his privileges, he was very interacted wih people who were intellectually compatible. In Singhvi’s narrative of his own life, his encounter with poets and playwrights of the stature of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Prakash Vir Shastri and actors like Om Shivpuri, Sudha Shivpuri, Ram Gopal Bajaj, Surekha Sikri and Om Puri — often referred to as the ‘jhola brigade’ by Singhvi — played a pivotal role. They were friends of the family and enrich the soul of the house with their conversations and discussions. Singhvi had a simple childhood which was far removed from anything mechanical or technology driven. Books, literature and ideas filled the empty spaces of their house and he remembers enjoying every bit of it. It was at this time that Singhvi developed a keen inter- est in theatre and watched iconic plays like Mukhyamantri, Mahabhoj and Tughlag which he found ‘mind boggling’. “The quality of theatre in the pre-video and pre-multiplex era was amazing and many of the performances were so gripping that they haunted me for years. The pace of life was slower and I remember enjoying, as a teenager, leisurely evenings at the theatre with my parents, sitting next to Advaniji and Prakash Veer Shastri,’ he reminiscences. When Singhvi was in school, he tried his hand at theatre on the insistence of Feisal Alkazi, son of Ebrahim Alkazi the famous theatre406 COURTING POLITICS personality. When LM Singhvi was appointed the chairman of the National School of Drama, the formidable Ebrahim Alkazi was its director. Feisal Alkazi, raking a leaf from his father’s book, started a theatre club at the India International Centre. Singhvi acted as the sec- ond lead in its inaugural play called A Slow Tomorrow and realised that he had no talent for acting and it was best he discontinued it. Singhvi also dabbled in music, taking his piano and guitar lessons very seri- ously at the Delhi School of Music. However, it was academics that trumped every other interest and Singhvi today admits that it was eas- ier to marty a singer than to be a musician himself, After school, Singhvi went on to study at the elite St. Stephen's College, taking economics, then the ‘Harvard course of India’, For the first time in his life, he was exposed to the lifestyles of Delhi’s privileged and intellectual classes. Stephen's was extremely competi- tive and Singhvi recollects that his barchmates were some of the best brains of India: Arvind Subramanian, Manjeev Singh Puri, Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Vinayak Chatterjee, Ajaypal Singh Banga, Ivan Menezes. Singhvi felt a com- pelling need to ourperform them but he failed to create the unmatched record of Columba’s, reaching the second spot at best. However, it was also in Stephen's that Singhvi devoted more time to extracurriculars — debating and organising talks by eminent personalities including Dr Manmohan Singh — and was elected the president of the planning forum, a profile that made him more confident of himself, Reminiscing his days at Stephen's, Singhvi says, ‘Stephen's gave me a larger slice, it made me understand a more diverse community, it gave me a lot of confidence, I realised that my academic competition is with the cop- pers of every school board in India, And, of course it gave me a pride at being part of the elitist institution though I did not allow myself to behave like an elitist. Stephen's gave me a good start in life and it honed my debating skills” Singhvi is known to push the envelope and does not like to be a prisoner of his personality, therefore, despiteTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER — Abhishek Manu Singhvi 407 being an introvert, he contested the executive council elections in St Stephen's. Singhvi lost the elections by a whisker and probably also lost the first chance to demonstrate great leadership. However, this was not the first time Singhvi lost out in electoral politics. In 2004, Shivraj Patil had offered Singhvi a ticket from the Congress party to contest from South Delhi but Singhvi let go of the opportunity thinking he was too new to politics. In 2009 though, he was already a member of the Rajya Sabha, but he feels he should have contested the election. Singhvi’s golden year was 2011; he was already serving his term as a parliamentarian, he was a prominent party spokesperson and the chairman of the Lokpal Committee, and there were talks of him either being appointed the union minister for law and justice or being awarded the top or the second rank political post in Rajasthan, when he lost out all of it to the unfortunate sex scandal in which he says he was framed. Barkha Dutt, one of the country’s top journalists, puts things in perspective, ‘Obviously the fact that he has not contested an election is kind of held against him in terms of a career graph that may have been available to somebody else. The young graduate from St. Stephen's took a conventional route. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and completed his MA and PhD between the years 1981 and 1986. His application was backed by a powerful academic record and a reference from Justice Mohammad Hidayacullah. In Cambridge, as in Stephen's, Singhvi faced people who could outperform him academically. That for him, was a very sobering experience. Arriving in Cambridge on a cold wintry evening in October 1979, he was displaced and homesick, made worse by his vegetarianism. Yet slowly and steadily, Singhvi fell in love with the richness and beauty of Cambridge. Within a few months, drawn to its ecric splendour he came to think of it as an idyllic fairy tale town. Few know that law was not a natural choice for Singhvi and that he chose it by way of elimination. His father was nonchalant about Singhvi’s choice of career, but his mother made a poignant observation, ‘What408 CourTING PoLITICs will you do with this big library of books we have if you don't go in for law?’ Singhyi found that logic irrefutable and went on to read law at Cambridge. Here he had the rare honour of being supervised for his PhD programme by Prof HWR Wade, a giant in the field of adminis- trative law. Singhvi completed his PhD when he was only 26. His thesis “Emergency Powers: A Comparative Study’ examined the legal and jurisprudential nature of the Emergency. Cambridge gifted him with the ‘power of analysis’ and he still gets goosebumps thinking that he was supervised in the same room where Isaac Newton once lived. His choice of subject during his PhD came after struggling for over six months with his original topic ‘Due Process’ and turn- ing to ‘Suspension of Due Process’, a virtual synonym for ‘Emergency Powers’, His choice of subject had nothing co do with the topic’s polit- ical facets (he had no personal interest in politics then) but he was fascinated with its legal aspect and the fact that, despite its central importance to constitutional law, book length legal treatment of the subject was then, as indeed now, virtually non-existent, especially in a. common-law comparative perspective. Till today, his thesis remains the most comprehensive two hundred thousand word treatment of the subject dealing with a historical global perspective. Singhvi fondly remembers his long walks in Cambridge and his fre- quent encounters with the wheelchair bound Stephen Hawking who could engage in some broken conversation back then, though Singhvi says, ‘they were too brief, too arcane and too high brow’ to make sense to him. His only regret is that he allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good: wanting to himself rewrite his thesis as a book, Singhvi kept deferring the importunings of numero uno publisher, Tripathi and Company, to get it published with an assistant author and thereafter was so drawn into the vortex of practise that he could never get around to finalising the book version. Its finally being updated for publication in 2018.THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 409 “The unforgettable scene from the movie Chariots of Fire in which determined runners compete to run around the quadrangle of Trinity College Great Court — within a minute — was shot during Singhvi's time there. The film’s theme music is still his favourite and the reso- lute grit and determination of its central character, Harold Abrahams, still inspires him greatly. In real life, Singhvi was one of the few men to have undisputedly completed the historic PhD ‘within three years, an extremely creditable feat akin to the great run.’ Singhvi's ability to work his fingers to the bone made him achieve this target despite Prof ‘Wade's over-exacting standards. Talking of Wade, Singhvi says, ‘Wade would have extremely high standards and that’s why I could not let him down. He graphically remembers the scary day of the viva voce in 1985 when external examiners grilled him for hours and anything could lead to a one line terrifying remark: ‘Please redo the work and we will reconsider after six months’, thereby nullifying three years of hard labour ploughing a completely lonely furrow. Hence, Singhvi refers to the process as a role of the dice. Prof Wade, ‘a somewhat uncommu- nicative man, seemingly unemotional, very dry’ always reminded him of the actor Peter O'Toole and described him as, ‘You have to imagine the archetypal Englishman with a monocle. A man of very few words and extreme precision, no flamboyance and very disciplined, The neg- ative thing about him was that he would leave (things) to you; if you wanted help you go and seek his guidance, he would guide you, but he would not push you too much, and you want to be pushed at that time! But his insights were brilliant. When I argue in court, I always repeat this one insight of Wade: he used to say, “all this discussion is going on about judicial review and the heart of public law is judicial review”, but what is the scope of judicial review? Wade developed the carpet analogy to answer this question: if one person is walking down the carpet, he can walk on it in a straight line, a second person can walk zigzag but still remain on the carpet all the time, a third person can hop and skip in different paths but still be on the carpet, All three410 COURTING POLITICS are taking different paths, but within the boundaries of the carpet. As long as they are on the carpet I, as the judge, will not interfere, but if you step off the caspet that’s perversity or jurisdictional error for which I am entitled to interfere. And the whole thing depends on how rea- sonably you measure the width of the carpet and whether the person has stepped off or not, explains Singhvi. In his own life Singhvi has imbibed the qualities of discipline, preci- sion, hard work and logic from Prof Wade. Pethaps his manner of con- cealing his emotions and presenting a case before a judge in a detached, clinical fashion can be attributed to his experience with Wade, Another favourite of Singhvi at Cambridge was Prof Tony Weir, a brilliant but maverick law don, who would often weave a story around the case Donoghue v. Stevenson! and taught the law on negligent lia- bility. Singhvi fondly remembers him for his lively lectures, sharp wit and example based pedagogy, full of insights, and for his remarkable scholarship in comparative law and the law of torts. His Casebook on Torts is still a locus classicus. ‘The reticent Singhvi was no longer reluctant to speak up and he found himself debating subjects like governance and constitutional rights. He immediately became a leader in discussions and was eager to learn as much as he could about the electives he had chosen. Singhvi owes a great deal to Cambridge and to express his gratitude towards his alma mater, is in the process of formalising a programme to annu- ally fund a student at Cambridge. Singhvi’s time in Cambridge changed him completely. He had new command over law and he was far more confident of his decisions and his abilities. Cambridge taught him to fend for himself, to live in very sparse circumstances. Ir also brought home the realisation that human talent is the same everywhere — what makes England or Cambridge better than a developing nation like India is their ability to provide a sustainable support structure as well as an ambience of immenseTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 411 freedom of thought and independence. To supplement his income at Cambridge, Singhvi supervised students in St. John’s College (the next door College to Trinity and Dr Manmohan Singh’s alma mater). Living within his means taught him to be thrifty, but he’s often mis- taken as a miser and claims that reputation was possibly generated because he always reprimands others for ostentatious splurging. His decision to return to India was not prompted by any grandiose ideas of giving back to his country, but mounting parental pressure after the birth of his first son, Anubhav. In 1982, Singhvi was married to Anita Sancheti. She was 18 and he was 23. Singhvi was home for a break after starting his PhD when his mother insisted he marry, Kamla had kept a file with proposals ready for the young Singhvi who admits to being the ‘most eligible bache- lor’ of his time within the Marwari community and recalls meeting a lovely girl called Sunita Biyani before he decided to marry Anita. Anita's father heard Singhvi speak at the annual lecture for Lord Templeman in Jodhpur and was impressed by his oratorical skills. After assiduous homework he approached the Singhvi family. Singh narrates that had it not been for a dirty bathroom at his relative’s place, he would probably have seen more girls and not said an instant ‘yes’ to his wife. ‘The jocular story goes that when Singhvi went to meet Anita, he was staying with a relative who didn’t have a western style toilet in their house. An almost ‘English Babu’, Singhvi found the idea of a “desi” toilet abominable and was forced to spend an entire day at Anita’s house where her whole family influenced him in such a way that he agreed to marry her. LM Singhvi later laughed at this story and called his son an ‘easy and soft prey’. Singhvi says Anita, despite studying law herself, is not a career person and does not contribute to the Gross Domestic Product of the house but rather contributes “in its leakage’ in a big way. Anita has made him brand conscious and a large spender (which according to him makes his miserly reputation a cruel joke), though Singhvi continues to crib while spending on branded412 COURTING POLITICS items, which he nevertheless likes to possess! Singhvi grew up with middle-class values and never owned more than three of four pairs of clothes before he married Anica, In fact, when he went to her house to meet her, the family tailor noticed Singhvi’s ragged bellbottoms and unhemmed shirt and enquired of Anita's mother if they were sure Singhvi'’s family was not poor, Anita is a trained classical singer and an artist, but seemed to have had a ‘telepathic, mental connection with Begum Akhtar’ and hence took to ghazals in a big way, even singing in Farsi apart from Urdu and performing the prestigious Nath at Jamia Millia Islamia, in memory of the Prophet Mohammed. Singhvi and Anica were truly meant to be, as during their coure- ship, Anita and her parents were caught in the Museebat Singh Indian Airlines hijacking but escaped unscathed. Though Museebat Singh was shot dead by the government, Anita remembers him as a ‘very compassionate, nice guy who tried to help women and children. He just wanted to make a declaration of importance and possibly he could and should have been arrested alive.’ Singhvi with wife AnitaTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER — Abhishek Manu Singhvi 413, Soon after marriage, Singhvi left for Cambridge for a second time and this time Anita accompanied him. For both Singhvi and Anita, the idea of separation was inconceivable, Singhvi recalls staying at the married accommodation at Green Street where coincidentally the for- mer Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi once lived. Singhvi says that living on a shoestring budget, he relied on the National Health Service for his wife’s delivery and applauds it as one of the best healthcare pro- viders in the world as they took charge of her delivery and ensured Singhvi was equally educated about fatherhood. ‘When Singhvi returned from Cambridge for good, in December 1985, he joined the office of Ravinder Narain (then JBD and Company) as he had some ‘weird and mysterious fascination’ with excise law. After a few months, Singhvi realised that excise was not the area of law he wanted to specialise in at the infancy of his career and the romance abruptly ended. Since KK Venugopal and Fali Nariman had no vacancy, he decided to work with his father. With a move to New Delhi, LM Singhvi’s legal practice got a huge push and soon he was the face of every important case. One of Singhvi’s earliest memories of LM Singhvi as a successful lawyer was of a man called ‘Vandemataram’ from Andhra Pradesh, a penurious maverick in torn kurta and chap- pals, whose election petition LM Singhvi successfully argued, unseat- ing the most powerful man of Indira’s cabinet, Chenna Reddy. Among the many lessons Singhvi learnt from his father, the most valuable are ‘the importance of transcending boundaries and not thinking nar- rowly. I have learnt the importance of having a sense of history, lit- erature, philosophy. I have learne the virtues of patience, balance and hard work from him,’ says Singhvi. He remembers Margaret Thatcher who once said, ‘standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides’ Singhvi feels his father suffered all his life because of that approach but at the end of the day he always tried to harmonise imbalances and says, ‘Today I am of course more black and white than him, much more. But still I414 COURTING POLITICS understand the importance of standing in the middle of black and in the middle of white despite being in danger of being knocked down, Among the first cases, that Singhvi assisted his father in was General Electric Co. x. Renusagar Power Co, where they represented Renusagar. This case was special for many reasons. Besides teaching Singhvi a lot about the field of arbitration, the case gave him a fair amount of money. Nani Palkhivala was opposing the Singhvis, which meant Singhvi had to elucubrate throughout the proceedings of the case and was the main legal assistant to his father who did extensive research and drafted written submissions. Preparing for Renusagar gave Singhvi enough experience and the Government of India enough con- fidence to engage him as a full length independent arbitration counsel in London against the Danish Firm, Volund. While recollecting his journey in Volund, Singhvi appreciates the diligence of the opposing English (QC) John Dyson from London who was representing Volund in the matter. Singhvi was impressed with Dyson’s commitment when he learned that he had postponed joining judgeship in the United Kingdom, till he completed the proceedings of this case. This was truly done to respect the time and money involved in the Volund case and to discharge his responsibilities towards Volund. Singhvi feels that ‘such a sense of professionalism is still absent in India’s arbitrations’ Singhvi belongs to an era when doctorates in law from Cambridge weren't exactly queuing up to serve the interests of clients in a court. He was unquestionably among the best qualified and he quickly earned the reputation for delivering results without stepping over the line to challenge his more seasoned and aged peers. In conversations Singhvi frequently harks back to his PhD days, his willingness to leave the comfortable confines of academia for the husly burly of courtroom life and its subsequent perceived advantages in his 's erudition was Justice Chinnappa career. One such admirer of Singh Reddy, who after being enchanted by his succinct arguments in aTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 415 matter, appointed the young Singhvi as amicus curiae in the case D.K. Basu v. State of W.B2, which in successive detailed orders over two dec- ades laid down the guidelines on custodial violence. Within a few months of joining his father, Singhvi’s reputation was credibly established. His profile rose further in 1993 when he was appointed a senior advocate, At 34, he was the youngest person ever to occupy the post. There were a series of litigations involved in Renusagar and it was during Renusagar IP that Singhvi was clevated. Renusagar had nine rounds of litigation, reaching the apex court thrice through high court single judges and Division Benches. Singhvi was part of six of those rounds. It was the most important international commercial arbitration case of the decade and decided seminal legal issues for the first time, including questions of what is arbitrable, scope of arbitra- tor's jurisdiction, meaning and boundary of public policy, and scope of court review of award at the time of enforcement. It triggered Singhvi’s lifelong penchant for this branch of law, which continues till now. Afeer leaving his father’s chambers, Singhvi practiced independently and says that it is then that ‘I developed my own style of lawyering, more combative and less trusting’. Singhvi’s legacy in arbitration is a matter of deep appreciation. Another arbitration matter that gave his career a real boost, consid- erably raising his stacure within legal circuits, was NTPC v. Singer Company’ where Singhvi was representing the National ‘Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The case revolved around the question of whether Indian courts could have jurisdiction when the parties had agreed to a London-based arbitration. Justice DP Wadhwa held® that India had no jurisdiction in this case and ie was only the English courts that could rule on the matter. The next step was to appeal against the ruling and as LM Singhvi was busy with other things, a young Singhvi took charge of the case. After arguing for two whole weeks before Justice Kirpal’s Division Bench’, Singhvi lost again. In the Supreme416 COURTING PoLITICs Court, despite Shanti Bhushan also being engaged in the case, Justice ‘Thommen insisted on hearing Singhvi independently and reversed the two lower courts’ orders, holding thar it was not possible to have a ‘one size fit all’ approach on such matters and that the words of the arbitra- tion clause in that case, ‘which were peculiar, had dispositive power. ‘The decision was condemned by several experts, reputed authors and arbitration practitioners like Jan Paulsson, who ended up having a face- off with Singhvi at a conference in Delhi. However, Singhvi remained unchanged in his view that NTPC was rightly decided by the Supreme Court in view of the special wording of the clause in question, but continued supporting judicial non-interference in the conduct of for- cign based arbitration with properly drafted clauses. It was duting this time that PC Rao, Law Secretary to the Government of India, called Singhvi to seek his opinion on the NTPC decision. Rao was keen to promulgate the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 through an Ordinance before his retirement. Singhvi’s suggestion was direct and forthright: “There is no place for sections like Section 9° of The Foreign Awards (Recognition and Enforcement) Act, 1961, in the 1996 Act and no law can take care of clumsily drafted arbitration clauses’ Singhvi also mentions Dresser Rand S.A. v. Bindal Agro Chem Ltd’, as early cases revolving around poorly drafted arbitration clauses under which courts directed parties not to proceed with the Paris based pro- ceedings of arbitration, despite Section $!° of the 1996 Act. “The same situation had arisen in the case of Bhatia International v Bulk Trading S.A.", popularly called the Bhatia case. Singhvi wasn't involved in the case but the principle enunciated in para 32 of the judgment stated: “In cases of international commercial arbitrations held out of India provisions of Part I would apply unless the parties by agreement, express or implied, exclude all or any of its provisions. In that case the laws or rules chosen by the parties would prevail. Any provision, in Part I, which is contrary to or excluded by that law orTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 417 rules, will not apply. Subsequent to Bhatia came the revolutionary case of Bharat Aluminium Co. v. Kaiser Aluminium Technical Services Inc:, popularly known as the BALCO case. Here, Singhvi was the only counsel before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court that ‘adopted a hybrid and nuanced stance’. In one of his arguments, he repeatedly put his point across by giving the example of a hypothetical fort in Rajasthan. He said that if the said fort was the subject-matter of the dispute, then the Indian courts ought to have the power to injunct its sale during the course of the arbitration proceedings, which were continuing in London. He propounded an interpretation that “even in foreign based arbitrations, Indian courts must be imparted some juris- diction to preserve the subject-matter, temporally and spatially limited in duration and scope, purely in aid of the main arbitration and never to delay, injunct or arrest the arbitral itself, but to prevent the arbitra- tion itself from becoming futile and infructuous”. Alternatively, at the end of his arguments, Singhvi wanted the court to apply the ‘doctrine of prospective overruling’ as several cases had been decided by several high courts keeping in mind the principle laid down in the Bhatia case”, which had held the field for decades. Singhvi also believes in the ‘realism theory of law’ first propounded by the American jurist Karl N Llewellyn in his famous work The Bramble Bush: The Classic Lectures on the Law and Law School, whereby a judge applies his sense of justice to the facts of the case before him and then twists and turns the law, as far as possible, to fit that sense of justice. Even though Singhvi was unsuccessful in persuading the BALCO Constitution Bench to allow limited injunctive relief to be granted by Indian courts in foreign seated arbitrations solely to preserve the sub- ject-matter of arbitration, he believes he got ‘even larger actual relief than asked for’. His argument of prospective overruling was accepted by the Bench, beyond the scope of what he propounded, by holding the BALCO ratio to be applicable only to arbitration agreements executed after the date of the judgment. Also, the October 2015 Amendment to418 COURTING POLITICS the 1996 Act allows such injunctive relief by amending Section 2(2)*, thereby effectively overruling BALCO on this point. Singhvi’s big win came while representing Reliance in Reliance Industries Ltd. v. Union of India, which unequivocally reiterated that designation of a foreign seat would automatically exclude Part I, thereby leaving Indian courts without any jurisdiction at all. Appeal by the Government of India was rejected in both Reliance ' and its sequel Reliance ID” and the law on this subject was substantially defined. Reminiscing his glorious journey through Indian arbitration law, Singhvi says, “This has been an interesting and intellectually invigor- ating journey and it is by no means nearing its end. I have been priy- ileged to be part of almost all major arbitration decisions of the apex court from pre-Renusagar days up to date, There are several lessons to be drawn from my experience. First, it has taught me the impor- tance and vital real life role of judicial realism, well beyond that of juristic principle or precedential discipline. Second, it reflects the need for careful Indian adaptation and alteration of foreign codes and models like United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Laws, before their hurried or whole scale importation. A small but practically significant example shows that while the new 1996 Act was intended to give greater life and efficacy to international arbitral awards, loose drafting of Section 36'* of the Act (till it was attempted to be corrected after 19 long years, in 2015) has judicially established that mere filing of Section 34 objections, even without a court notice on those objections, ipso facto and ipso jure stays the operation of the award automatically. This is enormously ironical because even under the much-maligned Arbitration Act of 1940, there was no automatic stay of the award and the court had to specifically order stay on awards! Indeed, this aberration of the 1996 Act encour ages award debtors to file objections, howsoever unnecessary oF frivo- lous. Thirdly, even more ironical, the 2015 Amendment to correct this anomaly is itself so clumsily drafted that it has led to divergent high‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 419 court judgments and is now pending in the Supreme Court while a large number of undeserving litigants are still getting the benefit of the old interpretation of auto stay on mere filing. Fourthly, the correct way to rectify aberrations like Bhatia or Saw Pipes" is prompt, focused legislative amendment, but humongous Parliamentary delays compel intervening judicial rectification (as of Bhatia by BALCO), trigger ing yet another chain of interpretive acrobatics and further frequently inconsistent judicial precedents. Fifth, the aforesaid legislative rectifi- cations (e.g. of Saw Pipes and/or Bhatia) have taken over a decade and still not really solved the problem!” Avishkar, his younger son, recalls the earliest memory of his father as a workaholic. Singhvi too proudly claims that he is probably more hardworking than his father. As a child, Avishkar says, ‘I just assumed that that’s the way all fathers work, he hasn’t changed at all.’ Singhvi’s only indulgence is gizmos, which he doesn’t understand but hoards. He enjoys travel, reading biographies, Bollywood music and action thrillers. He is happiest when he is with a few chosen school friends and family. The day at Singh official Lutyens residence) begins early and the place is buzzing with i’s Neeti Bagh residence (he never accepted an activity. Between briefs, newspapers, and a morning walk, Singhvi has to make difficult choices. All three never happen together and he feels terribly guilty whenever the third is the casualty. His Turkish Shepherd, Azlan shoots around like a large guided torpedo around the red-bricked house and is the only one to escape Singhvi’s wrath. Avishkar says that for his parents, ‘Azlan is top priority’ and for Singhvi ‘his relationship wich Azlan has made his relationships with human beings more obtuse’. Ic is not usual to have an Anatolian shep- herd dog, for they are not allowed out of Turkey. It was Anubhav who did intrepid internet research and located him in a litter in Italy, from where he was duly exported with a proper passport.420 COURTING POLITICS One fine day in 2008, Singhvi, then alone in the house with Anubhav as the rest of the family was abroad, found a foot long pup in a small basket in his bedroom. The pup is now exactly double the size of a Labrador and the chief member of the Singhvi family. As a child Singhvi had two.Alsatians, Romi I and Romi II. Romi II’s dis- appearance devastated Singhvi and he refused to allow himself to be hurt again, Ie took 38 years for that loss to heal and for Azlan to enter Singhvi leading pet animal magazine, where he also wrote an article about his ’s life. Singhvi featured on the cover of Buddy Life®, India's relationship with Azlan. Given the primacy of Azlan in the Singhvi household, Singhvi says, ‘My life's ambition is to be a dog, or, alterna- tively, in my next life, to be my wife.’ Singhwi with his beloved eldest son Azian at the farm True to his Piscean sign, Singhvi is intensely emotional, yet unde- monstrative. He describes himself as an introvert, over sensitive and non-hypoctitical. He can’t be very nice to a person he doesn't like nor can he be not nice to a person he likes. Singhvi is not only a staunch dog lover, but also a strong supporter of animal rights and often shud- ders at the thought of cruelty to animals. Therefore, it was no surpriseTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 421 that he took up the famous Jallikattu case” to put an end to cruelty to bulls, but had to step down in deference to the sentiments of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress. It is one of the many pro bono cases that he takes up. Among others he has worked on the closure of the Idgah slaughter house in Delhi, the Kerala stray dogs case, and the chicken cruel slaughter case. Singhvi has let go of a case for his party on several other occasions, He regularly updates his list of ‘misses’ and shoots off names from his iPad saying he’s paid a huge cost for being a Congress loyalist. ‘I said no to innumerable significant cases because of perceived conflict with my political party, including but not limited to Nira Radia, Manu Sharma, Vijay Mallya, Mayawati, Lalit Modi, Madhu Koda, Sajan Kumar, BS Lalli, Vikas Yadav Katara, Jaganmohan Reddy, Jayalalitha Monsanto, Devas, Dow Chemicals, Satyam, Lavasa, Adarsh Society, Mumbai, Kerala Lottery case, and Italian Marines case and easly sac- Tificed crores of rupees or more, if you calculate three-four appearances Per case. My iPad list of such missed cases, where lawyers and clients importuned me, sitting with cheque books ready in my office, has over 100 entries!’ Singhvi's life swings in a pattern of perpetual motion. His day is filled with incessant activity. He eats a frugal breakfast, unlike his evening meals. As the day progresses, Singhvi’s craving for sugar increases and he indulges in sugar-free ice cream, tubs of which are always sponsored by his younger daughter-in-law Astha’s family as they own Vadilal. His Forcuner is like a caravan, always stocked with two to three pairs of clothes and two days worth of files to read. Indeed, these documents are the permanent occupants of the car's back seat and Singhvi marvels how his two clerks manage to fit in there often along with junior colleagues or a briefing advocate, while he takes up the front row. His day is usually a week long, starting on a Monday morning filing 9 to 10 cases and ending with a conference on a Friday evening. He's prone to shouting, especially at those he considers his422 ‘COURTING POLITICS underlings. If Singhvi becomes angry, his staff claim to see it. Avishkar says Singhvi does have his moments of extreme frustrations and the laccer admits it’s more often than not driven by his own inability to handle ‘the problem of plenty’. In court he intensively micromanages cases, striding about with his characteristic quick and purposeful gait. “Through his iPhone, which seems to have been welded into the palm of his hand, he delivers clipped instructions via Whatsapp. He is very fast with responses and types as fast as he thinks. Singhvi has the ability to circulate with rare enthusiasm. If you meet him socially, you don’t have to worry about going up to him to say ‘Hello’, he is most likely to come up to you and do that himself. His energy has in fact become a byword. Anecdotes are regularly swapped about its mythic propor- tions, especially since 2006, when he became a member of the Rajya Sabha. Reaching court at 10:30 am, switching courts till noon or rpm like a hurricane, then on a particular day of Parliament session, getting into his car straight from court, changing on the road and heading straight to Parliament to open or respond to debates opened by senior opposing party politicians. Having done that, he rushes back to court and finishes the remaining cases by 4pm, then addresses the press in Parliament and is home by 5:30 pm. Despite it all, he finds time to prepare for the next day’s cases and in between he also finds time to talk to news channels on behalf of his parey. All his roles are aspects of himself, but Singhvi’s personality is so multifaceted that each perfor- mance feels individual. He frequently says that ‘multitasking is both the joy and the bane of my life, though I have considerably reduced ic during the last few years’ Singhvi can be informal like a good host and takes a keen interest in the other person’s life. With time he gets increasingly warm and open. His eye for detail is remarkable and haunting. He is fiercely proud of his achievements and his ability to work hard against all odds. Ar the same time, he doesn’t shy away from giving compliments to seniors, peers and junior colleagues.‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 423 In conversation, Singhvi is direct but distinctly professorial. His answers come complete with bullet points and he always speaks his mind. He claims to be open and transparent and people know it. However, he is a fairly orthodox man and likes to finish doing things inside the box before moving to things outside it. Singhvi maintains a precarious balance between self-criticism and overweening confidence. His ability to work hard is phenomenal and even those who know him well are mystified by his multifarious abil- ities and his speed for absorption. However, Singhvi claims that by nature he is actually very lazy and calls himself a person who works very hard only because he is a prisoner of his diary; if he had his way he would just watch movies and go for vacations. However, he doesn't shy away from wearing his ambition on his sleeve. According to Avishkar, his father is ‘insecure’ despite being at the pinnacle of his career, and feels the compunctions of missing out on a good case. He recalls that once while they were on a holiday abroad, an important matter came up before the vacation Bench of the Supreme Court, and Singhvi was so afraid of missing out that he rushed back to New Delhi to argue it. However, the family understands and accepts his paranoia. ‘In law, reaching the top is one thing and maintaining yourself at the top is another, because in today’s day and age, people have a very short mem- ory when it comes to lawyers. One goes another one will pop up. So it’s not just about being at the top, it’s also about longevity,’ reasons Avishkar. Singhvi himself believes it and a wooden placard in his office clearly announces that “The Buck Stops Here’. Singhvi’s range is wide — from commercial matters to complex arbi- trations, from arguing points of constitutional law to telecom cases, the buck does stop with Singhvi. His ability to breakdown a complex brief into three simple bullet points and his ability to succinctly argue his case around them is unmatched. Singhvi can think on his feet and is sharp witted, so it's very difficult to corner him in a court of law. As a juggler of many things, Singhvi is both effective and efficient.424 COURTING POLITICS Singhvi has always been a go-getter, someone who has the urge to prove himself again and again. Among people who know him, the opinion that he is motivated by money and power for his own sake is rare, The armchair psychological views on Singhvi’s outsized ambitions can be condensed into the phrase: ‘I'll show them’. He is always trying to prove something, trying to match up to the success of his father, trying to demonstrate that he doesn’t need his family’s network of sup- port, trying to create a legacy built on his sweat and toil. Avishkar, a lawyer, too feels the burden that his father felt. He understands that he has large shoes to fill and says, ‘It’s like a hanging sword on your head sometimes, because people judge you with much higher standards, but after doing the cost benefit analysis, I would prefer to be in this priv- ileged household because of the knowledge and exposure that I have received, which is fulfilling in several ways.’ Like Singhvi, Avishkar too works with his father and feels that the learning curve is tremendous. However, he also rues that his father is constantly finding faults in him, much more than in his other colleagues. Singhyi’s elder son, Anubhay, chose a non-legal career. Singhvi calls him the perfect ‘gentleman’ son, in contradistinction to Avishkar who can be argumentative and rebellious. According to him Anubhav is a man of diverse interests since childhood, which is perhaps what makes law a relatively boring profession for him. Anubhav is an avid natu- ralist, a keen traveller, and a licensed pilot possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of engines. Indeed his knowledge extends to a wide vari- ety of topics including birds, Mughal history, and dinosaurs and has finally settled down in the field of information technology.‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 425 Grandfather, Father (with fractured foot) and two sons Singhvi boasts of seemingly inexhaustible stamina. Though he has periods of laid back, ‘giving up’ somnolence, he is unstoppable when he is fired up with the ‘it can be done’ sentiment. He recalls that when Anita gave birth to Anubhav in 1984, in Cambridge, he was going through a most trying schedule. LM Singhvi had had his bypass sur- gery in London, a few days before Anita's delivery, and Singhvi’s PhD deadlines were in the same month. He was short of funds and leading a spartan student's life. He would be in London all day tending to his ailing father, rush to Cambridge in the evening to be with his wife and newborn child, and stay up all night to work on his thesis. In between, he would teach students at St. John's College as a supervisor (to supple- ment his income), take Anita and Anubhav for regular check ups and ensure that the house was well-provided for. Despite running against time, Singhvi finished his PhD in the same month, again proving his Power of attaining the impossible. He jokingly says that he was per- haps the only student in those few months to have got the key to the entire Squire Law Library, an enormous multi-storeyed Gothic struc- ture, in the centre of Cambridge University, one of the world’s best stocked law libraries. He would enter it at 1ipm every night and leave426 COURTING PoLITICs around sam the next morning, poring over research material in deathly silence. Singhvi frequently took Anita (before her delivery) with him so they could spend some time together even if it meant sharing ghostly nights, She would sleep fitfully on a few chairs pulled close to him, while he raced to complete his research. While his legal practice burgeoned in the mid 1990s, Singhvi launched his career in politics as a spokesperson, handpicked by Sonia Gandhi. Asa politician, he fastidiously avoids confrontation, preferring soaring but earnest rhetoric about politics, social structures, govern- ance principles, and law. Singhvi has frequently said that he would like to devote more time to his career in politics, but he still spends most of his time arguing cases. He says that ‘by nature I am not a darbari, I cannot spend hours roaming the corridors of power, having endless cups of coffee in meetings with senior leaders’. He categorically asserts that whatever he is entrusted with by the Congress, he does with full commitment and efficiency, but that he has no time to supplicate and seek positions and posts. But he also laments that his success in law is his worst enemy, allowing jealous detractors to spread the canard that ‘| am too busy’ or that ‘I have no time’. Singhvi confesses that he has no time or energy to perennially combat such remarks and always says that the top and senior leadership should have the discerning eye and penetrating analysis to know the truth to the contrary, without him having to be always in justificatory mode. Singhvi prides himself on his refusal to get sensationalist or dra- matic on television debates, and he shies away from the sort of hot button comments that fuels shouting matches on prime-time tclevi- sion. He brings a calming force. He is calibrated and measured in his advocacy and debates and in high demand on the speaking circuit. He sticks to the party line and keeps his arguments short and succinct. He persuades knowledge and does not jar with noise. According to Barkha Dutt, who has often engaged with Singhvi on debates, ‘A lot of spokes- persons whether they are from the Congress, BJP, or any other party,THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 427 get caught up in rhetoric, using big words, making big starements. ‘They emphasise more on drama than on substance. I think Abhishek’s trait is that he is not overly dramatic, but very clear. I think he needs very little time to process a complex issue and make it accessible and available to the general audience. He gets into debates, but it is very hard not to like him. On one occasion when a senior Congress leader left the party and used strong words against it, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi discussed the media statement they were planning to issue, with Singhvi. After discussing certain confidential facts, Singhvi told Sonia Gandhi, ‘Pardon me madam but with the kind of latitude and re-entries which the Congress permits to errant leaders, perhaps we richly deserve this.” Bhartia says, ‘He has a very sharp mind and that works to his advantage; both as a spokesperson for the Congress and as a parlia- mentarian. One plus point with Abhishek is that I have never seen him get frazzled, which to my mind is a great asset in politics. It’s very easy to fly off the handle. He has been confronted with all kinds of issues, but whatever may be the case Abhishek has always held his calm, and always responded with a lot of maturity and dignity. I have seen him demolishing arguments in Parliament, but he does so in a very com- prehensive manner, without raising the decibel level. He would never be screaming and shouting. To my mind, I think i's much more a measured way of getting a point across. He responds and defends the party's stand with very cogent arguments and with a lot of sobriety. Singhvi’s education in Indian politics and public life started when he was very young. His first encounter with campaigning was in 1962, at the age of four, when he climbed on an elder’s shoulders and shouted slogans through a hand megaphone, ‘Takdi ke vote do! Takdi ko vote do!” for his father’s controversial Lok Sabha election. Takdi means scales of justice, in Rajasthani, it was his father’s election symbol. His second stint in politics was when he was designated as the chief election agent in Pali for his father during the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Many years428 ad COURTING PoxITIcs later, it was Madhavrao Scindia, a client of LM Singhvi’s, who pushed the Congress party to absorb Singhvi into a political role and often told Singhvi ‘It’s a pity that the Congress doesn’t use you.’ A portrait of Scindia adorns Singhvi’s office and he gets emotional while discussing his political mentor. Scirtdia was visiting Singhvi's father to discuss a legal matter when he first met him, There was an instant connection and soon Singhyi was a regular at the Scindia household. Singhvi says that Scindia was very emotional and often confessed to getting hurt easily and like Singhvi, he too would guard and camouflage his emo- tions, In the 1990s Scindia had absorbed Singhvi as part of a Congress think tank, which also included Bhartia and Vir Sanghvi. Scindia urged Sonia Gandhi to absorb Singhvi into politics and she did oblige. Scindia, however, was dead by then. Singhvi thinks it’s ironical that he did not become a part of the Congress during Scindia's lifetime, when it was he who had been repeatedly pushing both him and the Congress. ‘Then in 2001, Sonia Gandhi suddenly asked him to become a member of the Congress’ Media Committee, and equally suddenly appointed him national spokesperson. He was picked for a full term at the Rajya Sabha in 2006, when he was only 455 this too was sudden and unexpected. Singhvi says, ‘I get emotional about Soniaji’s steadfast faith in me, undemonstrative and unostentatious, despite the usual “darbari” con- stantly filling her ears against me, especially on the false innuendo that my father was active in the BJP. Singhvi reminisces that he once told Sonia Gandhi that though she is number one in the Congress and its undisputed leader, she’s far too democratic and complained that long intra party discussions and interactions sometimes lead to results which are neither fish nor fowl, because of dilution and modification. He added that in contrast, the BJP which claims to be democratic and non-dynastic is actually dic- tatorial in its decisiveness. Singhvi says, ‘She democratically heard me out, smiled and said nothing”THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER — Abhishek Manu Singhvi 429 At the AICC Plenary with the twin congress pillars, chen Prime Minister and Congress President Singhvi explains his political differences with his father by saying that unlike other public life families with acrimonious and litigious displays of differences (such as the Scindias, Karunanidhis, Yadavs, etc), the Singhvis loved and respected each other deeply, but differed a lot on interpretational and ideological issues. LM Singhvi felt that the Congress should do much more for promoting true Indian culture, heritage and Sanskrit (and indulge che minorities less), whereas Singhvi fele that there were fascist thought processes just beneath the veneer of civilised behaviour in many BJP/RSS activists, which betrayed the idea of India. Singhvi deplored and betrayed the lumpen element in BJP cadres, whereas his father felt that the Congress had begun to take its ruling party status for granted. Around end-August, almost a month prior to his death, Scindia hosted a dinner at his residence for Inder Kumar Gujral and some of his close friends. Singhvi too was present. He recalls, ‘Scindia was ine- briated and he was sending us funny jokes on SMS. I think it was at this party that he stood holding his wine glass and looking at one of the portraits of his ancestors. He remarked that he had finally crossed430 COURTING POLITICS the Scindia curse and in fact had doubly crossed it. The double curse was that no Scindia man lived beyond 55 years of age and secondly that 1no man in the family had lived long enough to see his grandson. He was very proud of the fact that Jyotiraditya Scindia had had a son by then,’ . Singhvi recalls meeting and interacting with Scindia more than was usual during the last month of the latter's life. A week before his death Scindia summoned Singhvi to his residence and shared his pri- vate thoughts with him, Over a glass of wine, Scindia told Singhvi that “When I become the prime minister, I want you to be my law minister so take care of your health.” Scindia even recalled how his mother, Rajmata Scindia, under the “evil influence” of his uncle, Sardar Angre, had mentioned during an election campaign that were these feu- dal times, she would have had her son’s head crushed under an ele- phant’s foot, just like Ahilya Bai Holkar, a ruler of Indore, had done. Scindia was deeply hurt, but told Singhvi that he had never attacked his mother personally and did not wish to do so even in the face of this grave provocation. The comment did more harm to Rajmata than to Scindia. On Saturday evening, September 29, 2001, Scindia called Singhvi for a dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Delhi asking him to study the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) issue and analyse whether it was right to ban them or not. Scindia never worked on Sundays as that was the day almost unalterably booked for golf. On Sunday, September 30, 2001, at around 9 am, the phone rang. Ic was Scindia on the line. Singhvi was arguing with Anita over some- thing trivial when he picked up the open line. Scindia heard Anita scream at Singhvi and jokingly remarked, ‘I thought the nightingale ‘cindia wanted to discuss the SIMI issue urgently and in person and fixed up a time for later that evening, He was travelling with Sheila Dixit to Agra for some political engagement in the forenoon. Dixit backed out at the last min- can sing well, now I find she can also scream well’ ute as she was suffering from stomach flu. Around 2:30pm, Scindia’s‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER — Abhishek Manu Singhvi 431 plane crashed and Singhvi was permanently deprived of an emotion- ally connected relationship, apart from his most supportive political ally. Singhvi admired Scindia for ‘his dynamism, coupled with candor and trust: When Singhvi was legally representing both Arjun Singh and Scindia in two different cases, it was Arjun Singh who distanced himself from Singhvi due to his proximity with Scindia, But Scindia remained unaffected, displaying complete faith in Singhvi. However, Singhvi says, Scindia did sometimes have ‘the feeling of infallibility and the inability to accept mistakes easily’ Singhvi has been a friend of the family after Scindia passed away and shares a good camaraderie with his son Jyotiraditya. Jyotiraditya agrees, ‘Our relationship with Dr Singhvi is a personal one, a family relationship, that goes back two or three generations in my family. I chink he is the leading lawyer of the country today and he belongs to that firmament which India represents not only domesti- cally, but also at the global stage. I think he has an eye for detail, and the ability to put forward very logical arguments, conduct in-depth research and present facts succinctly. Certainly in the parliamentary domain he is of tremendous value, not only to the Congress party, but to the entire nation. Because when you talk about the process of leg- islation making I chink it is essential ro have someone who can give you good counsel and advice you, whether you are in government or otherwise. He presents that capability for the Parliament and for the country.” As the chairman of the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians, Singhvi led a multi-party delegation for two years to the Yale Parliamentary Leadership Program. In 2011, Singhvi was nominated chairman of the 30-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Lokpal Bill. This was like homecoming for Singhvi as it was his father LM Singhvi who had coined the term ‘Lokpal’ and its associ- ate ‘Lokayukta’, in the 60s, and demanded its creation on the lines432 COURTING POLITICS of an Ombudsman in Sweden. Jawaharlal Nehru had displayed an initial hesitation to the idea of an Ombudsman, probably due to the Scandinavian origin of the nomenclature of the institution, In a lighter vein, he happened to ask LM Singhvi, “To what z00 does this animal belong?” and asked him to indigenise the nomenclature. But there were problems from the start — Singhvi was still an out- sider in the party, a talented lawyer who had been swept into poli- tics after his successes within the confines of the court, with neither aptitude nor appetite for the dark arts of politicking, Although his entry into the Congress had been blessed by none other than Sonia Gandhi, it hardly guaranteed him the support of the party. ‘Seniors in the Congress have perennially restricted my entry because they know that I am highly talented and will make a mark. As a super successful professional and an independent-minded individual I am prevented by natureftom being servile or supplicating for posts and therefore do not tenaciously and persistently go for opportunities by conspiring or plan- ning, I lack the killer instinct for politics. I cannot be nice to a person I dislike or change my mind constantly. Above all, I do not have a thick skin, which I consider the most important qualification of a successful politician.” Singhvi accepts that he is frequently sidelined in politics because it is easy to paint him as a busy lawyer with limited time. He also accepts that a lot of people (far less talented and far less committed to the party) have risen, albeit years after him, because they have given up everything else and waited upon in the party, something he will never be able to do. Singhvi believes he has the negative Piscean char- acteristic of being too dreamy and not dynamic enough co reach out or go after his ambition with single-minded focus looking only at the bird's eye, like the mythological Arjun. Nor is he focused on ‘cultivat- ing contacts’ and he blames his failures in politics on this trait more than anything else.THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhoi 433 In the same breath he regrets the fact that though he did everything entrusted to him, he did not suo motu leave professional preoccupa- tions or family commitments to unilaterally demonstrate help and loy- alty to the party. In some cases he believes that the inherently status quoist approach of the Congress allowed not only his known detractors to continue in headless departments wicketed by Singhvi, but caused great damage to the image and prestige of the Congress. Singhvi’s success story is positively bizarre, with a string of contro- versies encircling him. A personality with all the tenderness of a bat- tered Ram and a host of foes, Singhvi shouldn't have been able to build anything nearly as successful as his legal practice. Somehow, and very rapidly, he was perched atop. Besides being the youngest senior counsel designated at age 34, he was also one of the youngest additional solici- tor generals at 37. Singhvi claims he has an uncanny knack for making enemies, who have been born out of sheer jealousy. He swiftly accumulated political enemies who resented his closeness to Scindia, his confident style or simply the suddenness of his rise. Beginning March 2012, a few days after Singhvi’s s3rd birthday, his carefully tended public image took the first blow. A leaked video alleging his sexual liaison with a lady lawyer of the Delhi High Court went viral. It commenced a wave of unwelcome scrutiny on Singhvi’s life. Newspapers, magazines, and television channels leapt to cover the exciting new scam, which had several eager viewers. Singhvi pro- tested saying that the tape had been doctored by a disgruntled former employee. He points out that though it is entirely untrue and doc- tored, ‘Assuming it to be true, how can a consensual act be a crime and how does it affect public interest? It’s purely salacious and an element of public interest was introduced which was absolutely untrue as no narcotics, illegality or coercion was involved and there was absolutely no offer of judgeship made.’ As stories piled up, reporters and people434 COURTING POLITICS swarmed around Singhvi wherever he went and he faced uncomfortable questions at every turn. Singhvi, by turning up in court the next day, decided to strike a courageous blow to all his detractors. In the wake of the scandal and the barrage of unwelcomed attention that followed, Singhvi worked even harder to restore the shine to his reputation. Singhvi further clarifies, ‘I went to the Delhi High Court and obtained an injunction” with recorded statements of my former employee and his admission that it was fabricated as also of India Today which aired it without attesting its authenticity. A criminal case” has been filed against the driver in the Patiala criminal court and the report of the Central Forensic Lab regarding its doctored nature was also filed. The judicial findings on the case that it was doctored remain unchallenged till date.” ‘Among the Congress leadership, the viral CD episode had initially been a cause for embarrassment and fingers were pointed from every direction. The defensive reactions and outright evasions from senior Congress leaders at that time made it clear that the topic remained radioactive ‘The debate on the controversy had been impossible to avoid, but Singhvi has managed thus far to shift the terms of the debate towards the question of why the legal community and political establish- ments had targeved him in the first place. It seems Singhvi has already grasped the golden rule of political narrative ~ chat every story has a protagonist and an antagonist and in this case he is the protagonist and his jealous political colleagues, the antagonists. Singhvi believes that he has been entirely misunderstood and he is in a way a victim of his own success. ‘After the controversy broke, Singhvi was still very sure of himself. He did re-bound, he was bent but not broken, which astonished both his supporters and detractors. Singhvi says, “The incident happened on April 12, 2012. From April 12. t0 May 12, for 30 days, I went to courtso a hi lhl ad THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 435 everyday. I didn’t miss court even for a day. From May 13 till May 30, I went to the high court after the Supreme Court closed. For six weeks I went to court as I do normally. I looked the judges in the eye, I argued.’ A key scene in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, is the one in which Lawrence puts out a burning match between two fingers, without so much as the blinking of an eye. When a British officer tries, he howls in pain and asks how the trick is done. Lawrence enigmatically replies that the answer is “not minding that it hurts”. Singhvi, like Lawrence, can pretend to not mind that it hurts. ‘There is a curious kind of faith in this man, Perhaps not in the integ- rity of his character but in his ability to work the odds into his favour, even after a fall from grace as steep as this one. He deals with any obstacle coming his way and finds a way out on his own. He doesn’t spend time creating a structure before starting an act. After the CD incident, the harshest blow came from the legal com- munity. People said that Singhvi’s stars had fallen and far. ‘The sex tape ground his reputation to dust at once. He recollects, ‘A premier law firm issued an internal letter saying that we must check whether we will be blamed by the Bar Association for briefing Dr Singhvi. T have never talked about it. I just know, but my not saying doesn’t mean I don't know it.’ Worse, the lady lawyer who was framed in the sex scandal was socially and legally ostracised. Lamenting about her fate, Singhvi says, “Two years later, her daughter spoke to me about how people spat on her mother in the corridors of the court, she was hounded and people passed lewd remarks every time they spotted her and one day they left a chit for her saying they want to sleep with her for Rs 900. Singhvi further adds, ‘Her career is destroyed and we speak about women empowerment. Shame pn us!” ‘After the controversy, the Singhvis, heartbroken yet united, travelled to New Zealand for their annual summer break, a tradition they have maintained for 22 years. It did take a lot of strength to pick themselves436 couRTING PotiTics up from what had happened. Singhvi remembers watching his col- leagues talk under their breath about this infamous episode, with pro- found disappointment, His appearance in court the next day sent a very strong message to everyone ~ that he would not be dragged down in anger or sadness, but would just try to make the best of it. Like his father Avishkar too takes these things in his stride, ‘We are a family, we are part of a public family. We take it that there are going to be some ups and downs, some controversies, some criticism, So, we have learnt to be united through adversity. And we sort of try to weather the storm if ever there is any. In times like this we have to make sure that family relationships don't get affected. We move on with life and pay attention to its smaller joys, live every moment. Because the one thing 1 learnt is that no matter how big the problem is, time will solve it sooner or later. And public memory is short and is getting shorter every day. So, people may not remember you for the good things that you have done. And life main babut instances honge jab log aapko criticise sarenge, aapko pull down karenge and vo hoga, but you should never lose heart, apni rah pe tikke chalna hota hai. As long. as you stay on your path and are doing your job diligently, after a point of time, everyone, friend or foe, falls in line’ Singhvi felt unsupported and unappreciated. He still bemoans the lack of his party's support at the time of crisis. ‘The CD incident hit Singhvi’s image beyond repair. He feels that the episode has left him fragile and vulnerable to constant attack. ‘Especially of many of my colleagues who kept conspiring, leaking, disseminating and propagating false propaganda and desperately hoped to see my end in all my multifaceted manifestations.’ Singhvi claims that the subsequent harassment by the tax depart ment can also be attributed to maliciousness and personal vendetta; it emanated initially from a high ranking official in the taxation depart- ment. In 2013, Singhvi was battling the income tax department, whichTHE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 437 claimed he had avoided declaring Rs 22 crores for taxation purposes. Singhvi suo motu approached the Income Tax Settlement Commission to pay the penalty. He expresses his frustrations with a prevailing notion that he is a victim and itemizes his grievances by saying, ‘Now the first thing is that I am and have been India’s highest income tax- payer in my category for decades, almost always number one and very occasionally number two or three. For the last several years I have been one of the highest individual taxpayers even across categories and in 2016-17, higher than the highest Bollywood taxpayer! Secondly, there is not even an allegation about one paisa receipt in cash. The allegation is about alleged over expensing in a few years. The allegation is based on assumptions, pure assumptions. The Settlement Commission is created precisely for such one-time disclosures. To avoid controversy, I offered the whole alleged over expensing to tax. ‘The Settlement Commission is Known to settle thousands of crores of demands for a few crores, even in cases involving highly suspicious and illegal transactions of smug- glers and dubious jewellers! Thirdly, my case involved a comparatively small amount with hundred percent offered to tax, but was refused by the SC which is mainly approached only to avoid penalty and prosecu- tion. That is the entire purpose otherwise one would rather go through assessment proceedings. Fourthly, penalty was imposed and immunity refused by the Commission. They can only refuse immunity. They levy penalty on the basis of a statement made’ by a person who was not allowed to be cross-examined by me which is by itself sufficient to set aside the order. Fifthly, several mandatory statutory time limits were violated by Settlement Commission. Sixthly, there are patent arith- metical blunders of crores of rupees in the Settlement Commission order showing total non-application of mind. Seventhly, the High Court comprehensively stayed the Settlement Commission order while 1 offered to pay the admitted/offered amount and deposited it.’ ‘The circumstances of his loss irk him, but today he turns them into lessons learned the hard way. He used to feel disappointed that no one438 COURTING PoiTics understood him, but now he says, it’s not his problem if they don't. “The episode made me far less trusting and cynical and caustic to a fault. I realised there were three kinds of people in society; those who when they see their colleague in the pie gleefully shovel more mud into the pit hoping to bury the hapless person into the pit, those who walk: past unconcerned and unbothered and those who stick out helping hand. 1 am convinced from my own experience that seventy percent fall in che first category, twenty percent in the second category and only ten percent in the third category, he says, bitterly. Singhvi claims that his personal feelings and emotions are more closely guarded than state secrets. A trait he shares with the woman who appointed him, Sonia Gandhi. He doesn’t think he has many friends and admits to being a very private person. It is no surprise that the adverse publicity he has been getting is completely distasteful to him, There is no doubt that some things have changed about Singhvi since 2012. He has demonstrated enough strength, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of his decimated moral integrity, an act that would have crushed a lesser man. He has become wiser and less trusting. There is in the parable that is Singhvi's life, the temptation to glean some wisdom, heartening or otherwise, about the way Delhi works today. He feels, “Delhi is one of the shallowest places on earth. You are lucky if you can count your friends on the fingers of your one hand. Ninety percent worship a rising sun, they also worship status symbols and money; I have seen with my own eyes how people who lick your boots, turn their face against you and within two months again starts licking your boots. I have seen that the vast majority come to you because they believe you could be something in the future or are something” It must be as perplexing to his many admirers as it is frustrating for the man himself — the fact that a man of many talents, great skills and strong beliefs is a consistent back bencher in politics. It seems likeSereree itt ae ‘THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 439 Singhvi has the Midas touch in reverse when it comes to politics. Few lawyers have more or better recorded judgments to their credit. Hailed by the Congress for his legal acumen, lionized by the legal fraternity as the go-to man for every big corporate house ot celebrity, he has nevertheless seen one ingloriously missed opportunity after another. He admits, ‘Clearly, I have always been on the edge, on the thresh- old of being appointed. I have got calls, I have been told on telephone “Congratulations this time you are pakka.” So people consider me appropriate and fit but people are equally happy that I have not been made a minister. Those who are jealous, So, I have been on the verge of it many times and certainly in ory, it was my peak year. So 2009 onwards, anytime I could have been a minister, I always joke that it’s better to be considered one of the most eligible unappointed ones than to be cursed as an undeserving appointee! But honestly, it has not mat- tered to me except momentarily because firstly I would be miserable unless I was given a performance oriented portfolio and secondly, I am not dependent on politics at all. ‘The momentary regret is only because, being in public life, it is good to have a former minister's badge, a stamp upon you. According to Singhvi, Indian politics lacks passion. He believes that if one person out of our teeming millions is credited with that minis- terial chair, it is his job as its holder to get work done. Singhvi would have liked to get that ministerial stamp also because he is by nature a technocrat who likes to achieve things. Singhvi feels if he is given a worthwhile portfolio he will ‘change the face of the damn thing’ and that this is his only regret, ‘because ultimately the permanent post is that of an ex-minister not of a minister. Singhvi himself admits that he gives up all too quickly when his initial efforts to claim territory fall apart. He accepts that his role presently is relatively marginal, far lesser than his capacity and commitment. Nevertheless he is satisfied because of his strange ennui, which yields him greater satisfaction in doing440 COURTING POLITICS nothing or being with his family or being much sought after in his profession. He does accept that in a sense his journey in politics has remained inconclusive and unfulfilled, but displays an inexplicable faralism about it, saying that, ‘I do not intend to increase swo motu my exertions to realise my ambitions though I am ever ready to sacrifice if the party entrusts me with meaningful responsibilities’ Nor all character flaws are inconsistent with positions of great dig- nity or authority. General Ulysses Grant's fondness for whisky did not make him unfit for command. Other statesmen have combined great public achievements with failure in their personal lives. Franklin D Roosevelt was neither a good father nor a good husband. Edward VII vwas a better monarch than a man. The first major scandal of Singhvi’s life is indicative of a troubling tendency that now threatens to overshadow the rest of his impressive carcer, It’s a burden that is hard to bear. Singhvi’s political ambitions will have to fight the prejudices against him. He admits thar the party did not remunerate him commensurate with his talent, but is quick to add, ‘I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I have got a lor from the Congress and I am not complaining.’ Singhvi has been offered higher political posts by other ‘major political parties, but believes chat broadly his political philosophy matches the Congress ideology, hence, he’s more comfortable there despite the low rewards and despite disa- greement with many Congress policies and decisions. Singhvi's frustration is palpable and he has ample reason to regard himself as maligned by the media and public. But in the acrid atmos- phere that is today’s politics, things are likely to get harder for Singhvi before they get easier, and the separation he has carefully maintained between his career serving the public and his career serving his cli- ents seems to be the first casualty. Singhvi says, ‘My success at the Bar has been my biggest cnemy in public life. But this is a vicious circle.THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKER— Abhishek Manu Singhvi 441 It’s a vicious circle in as much as when you are successful in the Bar you cannot be asked to stop, sit, and wait for the approptiate thing. All the examples you have scen, other examples, are not the correct examples because they got what they wanted early on. In my case you expect that I will wait in law practice and devote time there and wait for something to happen. No, the sactifice is where there is something to exploit my talents, given that I am willing to leave this law practice. But I am not prepared to leave it for something that is cosmetic or less. Barring three-four lawyers in politics, most of them got the political posts they wanted very early on or did not have much of a law practice, so they could afford to neglect it and spend endless time doing chores in politics and work their way up the political ladder.” Having served the Congress for nearly 20 years in different roles, Singhvi cannot be reduced to a soundbyte. The son of an accomplished statesman, a parliamentarian and legal doyen himself, thoroughly versed in both domestic and foreign affairs, jocular and argumentative and on the right side of almost every issue, he is close to the Queen. He appeared to be on a steady path to the top, yet there was some- thing lacking throughout. Luck, initiative perhaps, but above all that the priceless gift of timing in politics. Few are as eloquent as Singhvi. Few can command this kind of attention for their thoughts. However, the results of all his talents and efforts havenot been quitewhat Singhvi would wish and the fate of his legacy is out of his hands. If the intracta- ble issuetroubling his image is somehow forgotten or resolved, his place in history will be far larger. Singhvi agrees that it’s fair to compare him with Al Gore, who was almost made president of the United States of America, but for his poor luck or the Karna, the tragic son of Kunti, who despite his bra- vado and talent, remains an unsung hero. After the Congress's recent loss in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elec- tions, Singhvi feels the future of the party is both bright and grim. ‘Ieis442 COURTING POLITICS bright because at the end of every long tunnel there is light and if you go down, it is really an incentive and an opportunity to rise. But the precondition is absolute radical, surgical and quick changes and the pace and direction has to pick up exponentially. I would much rather be on that front. Otherwise we are in trouble, I have no doubt we have potential, I have no doube that we have to catch the publics imag- ination but our pace, direction and content has to change. Position holders in the Congress at various general secretary, Pradesh Congress Committees, departmental heads and middle levels have to be ruth- lessly changed. Being specific by nature, I would like to list some of the problems as 4) by the time you take the first decision in Congress the third is overdue, 4) Same bottle same wine, different bottle same wine. Different wine same bottle. All must change; ¢) there is certainly scope for having our own Margdarshak Mandal; 4) we have to show dyna- mism and middle of the roadism. BJP’s extremism has been working. because of extreme stands we have taken; ¢) We have to generate ten new young faces in ten states who are good orators. One hopes that if the Congress comes to power in the future, Singhvi will return to assume a position he has long deserved if not sought, and hope in the words of the late Scindia, that ‘the Congress is able to use him well’ and that unlike Karna or Al Gore, Singhvi doesn’t remain on the margins of history.