Ram Jethmalani: Intellectual ‘dilettante’ who didn’t mince words

The first election Jethmalani fought was in 1971 from Ulhasnagar for its Sindhi population

For many he was an utterly captivating, extraordinary character. For others, he was a source of constant trouble, a man who seemed to represent no moral principles, was politically unscrupulous and an intellectual dilettante. Ram Jethmalani, the most unpredictable of politicians lived a full life and died four days short of his 96th birthday.

There is little that is not known about his personal life. He started studying at Tekchand Pathshala, for which his father had to pay what in those days was a princely sum of Rs 4 a month. He completed school from Sukkur, Pakistan, at the age of 14 after getting several double promotions. His biographer, Susan Adelman writes about Ram Jethmalani’s naughtiness in school: “One day, when he was 14, the principal called all the students to come to the schoolyard at 1 pm. When they asked why, he said: ‘I am going to thrash Ram Jethmalani for ruining the morals of the school’.

It seems that Ram had asked the boys in his class what they did at night to amuse themselves in their rooms. They said they would usually read or study, and he said he would teach them something they could do by themselves that would be much more fun.”

His father, ignoring his fascination for his grandfather’s vocation, the law, sent him first to study science and then engineering. Jethmalani was miserable. Finally, he joined the SC Shahani Law College in 1939 and graduated as a lawyer at 17 in 1941. He fought and won his case to be permitted to practice law – not at 21 but at 18. It helped that he had got a first class first in law school. He began his law practice at 18….