By Kumkum Chadha
Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court, Mukul Rohatgi also served as India’s Attorney General. His friendship with the late Arun Jaitley, who was also Union minister, is well-known. What is not is his proximity to Narendra Modi: the association that began when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat and one that continues even today. In a candid interview, Rohatgi talks about this and much more.
Rohatgi joined the legal profession at a time when it was, to quote him, “a poor cousin” to lucrative professions like medicine and chartered accountancy: “My father was a first-generation lawyer, so my joining the legal profession was a done thing. Back in the seventies, law was neither lucrative nor was it the go-to profession… or the “choice of season” given that it dealt with refugee cases and small-time matters: “It is thanks to Narasimha Rao (former prime minister) that the economy opened up and there was a flood of cases: IPR issues, patent issues and big contracts being given out. All these led to disputes and we jumped from a gaaliwala league to one that was pan-India. It was somewhere along the nineties that the Ambanis and other big companies like Larsen and Toubro, Cipla came in and I appeared for most. Then there was no looking back,” Rohatgi said.
On his interactions with the rich and powerful, including the Ambanis and Adanis whom he closely interacted with, Rohatgi said: “Most were intelligent, hardworking and had a head on their shoulders; I did not find any bragging or swagger: they were absolutely grounded”.
In some cases, the professional relationship led to a personal rapport wherein Rohatgi participated in family celebrations, including weddings of the Ambani children, for instance. And of course, not to forget the mangoes Ambani sends him “every year”.
Businessmen apart, with the majority of politicians, Rohatgi’s relationship has been cordial. There were a few exceptions though wherein one politician barged into his office simply because he was kept waiting for a few minutes: “I am not their drawing room buddy or a hanger on. I am a professional and talk business. Even a senior politician like Mulayam Singh Yadav came to my office,” Rohatgi said while admitting that “his (Yadav) diction was a problem particularly when he was talking on the phone. The solution: “I preferred speaking to him across the table”. His son, Akhilesh, on the other hand is “very intelligent and clear about his thoughts”.
An interesting anecdote about the late J Jayalalithaa is something which had then left Rohatgi flabbergasted: “I was in Chennai some 15 years ago and went to meet her at Poes Garden. There were two MPs with me. When we entered her office, she nodded. I looked around and both the MPs, in fact one was a minister, had dived to the ground. I didn’t know what happened”. It took a split second for him to realize that they were lying prostrate to pay obeisance to her: You know all of them still carry a photo of Jayalalithaa in their pocket of their khadi shirts”, he said underlining the devotion of her partymen towards their late amma, as Jayalalithaa was popularly known.
As for MK Stalin, the now chief minister of Tamil Nadu, he too zeroed in on Rohatgi. Happy at the outcome of an important case fought by the state government, Stalin had sent a “big sengol made of silver as a gift” to Rohatgi. Decoding the Sengol, Rohatgi explained: “It is like a Hanumanji ka gadda”, a mace to put it simply.
On the issue of corruption in the judiciary Rohatgi was candid: “There is corruption in the judiciary. It may be at different levels. And it is a worrisome issue. There is no provision in the Constitution to deal with this except the power of transfer and even that was not meant to be a punishment. In fact, it was meant for a better administration of justice. Also, if a judge is corrupt and there are allegations, there is no real mechanism except an in-house enquiry, and therefore, there is no real remedy. Hence the transfer business has come in vogue and is now perceived as a punishment but this is a hogwash.”
In the context of the recent case of Justice Yashwant Varma, Rohatgi said: “He is under a gaze. There is no procedure under the law except impeachment which is very laborious. But what is the great point of sending him to Allahabad? What is going to happen? If he has to sit at home, he can sit at home in Delhi also because he cannot be removed till impeached”.
For someone whose first pay cheque was a mere Rs 110, which included clerkage, Rohatgi has come a long way: he just cannot stop counting his millions, but then after a point, money loses its relevance as do the fleet of luxury cars that he owns. He has come a long way from owning a house, in fact more than one in Lutyens’ Delhi and a Bentley: “Getting the first cheque was among the happiest moments; after that it is just a matter of adding zeroes.” Equally, he no longer works to earn the millions or multiply that: “It is not the money, but if I retire today what will I do?”
Rohatgi’s friendship with the late Arun Jaitley, former Union minister, is well known: his death a heartbreaking moment. Both Jaitley and Rohatgi started their careers together: “From 1978 onwards, we used to have lunch together till 1998. For 20 years and every single day. He was a diabetic and we shared our dabbas. His wife used to send a dabba which had salad, dal, chapati and karela and one vegetable and he ate that karela and daal from Monday to Friday for 20 years”. Things changed after he became a minister which led to his “diet going haywire”. In later years, his health deteriorated.
It was Rohatgi who suggested to Jaitley that he should slow down: “I told him that since his health is going down, he should quit as minister and rest for a year or two and then return to public life”. But his was, sadly, to quote him “a lone voice”.
While it is true that Rohatgi being named as Attorney General of India was thanks to Jaitley, few are aware that Rohatgi is also known to Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat. “Riots happened soon after Modi became the chief minister and these cases came up to the Supreme Court. The main allegation was that the state government had looked the other way when the riots happened and encouraged the massacres and so on. The courts were hostile. I did those cases, but it was like a trial by fire, so to speak. I did have a few meetings with Modi then, but later as Attorney General, there was familiarity and after that I met Modi regularly.”
About Modi, Rohatgi said: “Modi, the prime minister, is a great listener. He is not the kind to bombard his views; he listens to people, listens to experts and then he forms a view. In so far as politics is concerned, he is a past-master and there I don’t think he needs any advice.” Rohatgi is among the handful who has had meetings lasting up to one hour with the prime minister.
For those who don’t remember, Rohtagi was responsible for getting bail for actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan, in a drug case. During Rohtagi’s stay in Mumbai, Khan had booked a suite above Rohtagi’s in the hotel for closer proximity. Rohtagi is also one who refused Khan’s offer of flying him into India in his private jet from London. “I declined..I don’t like private jets. I like big jets,” he says as he wraps up the conversation.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator