MADURAI: The passing away of legendary legal brain of the country and India’s top most lawyer Shri.Ram Jethmalani at the age of 95 years, in New Delhi, on September 8th 2019 Sunday, is a tragic day for entire legal fraternity and India.
This writer, Shastry V Mallady, had a great fortune to be associated with him, since 1989, on a couple of occasions for public causes. He inspired me a lot through his anti-corruption movement when he led nation-wide campaign to expose Bofors corruption case through public meetings.
As a UG student of R.K.M. Vivekananda College in Mylapore, I attended his public meeting near Kabaleeswar Temple Tank in then Madras in 1989 ( on 3-9-1989), where he spoke at length of how corruption took place in the Bofors gun deal.
In his speech, he said to the audience to shout “MY BLOOD IS BOILING’ because the then Rajiv Gandhi government, he said, indulged in massive corruption. As a college student, I attended that Mylapore meeting even though there are restrictions on hostel timings in the evenings.
I shouted ‘MY BLOOD IS BOILING’. I WENT ON TO THE STAGE QUICKLY AND SPOKE TO HIM.
Legal Luminary Ram Jethmalani welcomed me into his arms, he spoke to me and gave me an autograph telling me to be against corruption at all points in my life. “Remember you told me your blood is boiling.” This was what he wrote in my autograph book in 1989 when I was a college student.
When I went to New Delhi to join a PG course in the year 1991, I contacted him through a landline number in Parliament just to see him. It was very easy those days. He was MP then. Mr.Ram Jethmalani took my call, he asked me to come to his house in the evening, he gave me his MP bungalow address. I went there at the said time.
My luck was that this great legendary inspiring lawyer of India spent 45 minutes with me. He spoke to me on many issues burning at that time with focus on eradicating corruption. I was given tea, warmth and confidence by this great legal luminary. I will never forget. No photos because i was a student then. It was 1991.
That had later on motivated me to become a journalist. I worked in the media. Later on I joined the BJP to which Mr.Ram Jethmalani belonged to. He is a true legend in our legal field.
On behalf of the ‘Lotus Times’ website, I express heartfelt condolences to the family members of Shri. Ram Jethmalani.
He was a person who motivated me on a couple of occasions when I met him. Corruption-free India, values-rich India and our culture are important, he told me when I met him in his residence in Delhi for the first time. Those words still inspire me.
