New Delhi: The who’s who of the legal fraternity and beyond gathered to celebrate former Attorney General of India K.K. Venugopal as a man with a moral compass and a sense of honour at the launch of his autobiography on Tuesday.
But amid the praise came a rare voice of criticism: former parliamentarian Subhashini Ali questioned Venugopal’s silence during his tenure from 2017 to 2022, when, according to her, “majoritarianism was hurtling towards an unimaginably dark future”.
“Thousands of farmers sitting in the cold, COVID-19, the Citizenship Amendment Act protests, abrogation of Article 370 and the Ayodhya judgment itself,” Ali said at the launch of his autobiography, An Accidental Lawyer: My Adventures in Law and Life.
She added that she found his silence on these events during his tenure difficult to understand.
“But he was silent then, and he is silent now after demitting office during the writing of the book,” she said. “I find this incomprehensible.”
While addressing the audience at the Oberoi Hotel’s ballroom, Ali said it was an unexpected honour for her to be invited to speak at this event, while adding that she had warned the organisers about what she might say.
“The organisers told me he (KKV) was insistent. He also sent me an inscribed copy of his book, but when I went through it, I told them, ‘You may not like what I say on the stage’,” she said.
Ali said the organisers responded that Venugopal had insisted that she be here, as “he did not want any sycophants on the stage”.
But along with the criticism, she also shared personal memories.
Ali recalled the time when both of them were members of the Madras Riding Club, where her uncle and the late lawyer Govind Swaminadhan hectored them into becoming horse riders.
She also shared a personal account of the time when Venugopal intervened on her behalf in a legal matter. “I went with him to the Supreme Court for the first time and it was fascinating to walk around with someone who wielded so much authority there that it could turn things around,” she said.
Ali made these comments at the star-studded book launch attended by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, Supreme Court judges including Justices Ujjal Bhuyan, Manmohan, N. Kotiswar Singh, K.V. Viswanathan and Sanjay Kishan Kaul (Retd), as well as senior advocates like Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sanjay Hegde and Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
The evening, which began with a live band and cocktails, was broadly centred around a discussion about Venugopal’s life and his book, moderated by Diviya Kapur, his former junior who later switched from law and set up Literati, a bookstore in a 100-year-old Portuguese house in Goa.
The event also included both sitting and former judges of the top court and the Delhi High Court, such as Justices Rajiv Shakdher, Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, Navin Chawla, Kurian Joseph, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, C. Hari Shanker and Anoop Bhambhani.
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‘Two constant companions: a sense of honour and morality’
Venugopal has been part of the legal system through most of modern India.
From arguing motor vehicle cases as a young lawyer in the 1960s to serving as Attorney General of India, the senior advocate has been engaged in the most politically significant cases in Indian legal history, like the Babri Masjid demolition, the dismissal of the Karunanidhi government and the National Judicial Appointments Commission case.
Veteran journalist and former managing director and editor-in-chief of The Hindu and Frontline, N. Ram, also recalled his early association with the 94-year-old legal luminary in the 1960s.
“I met him in the 1960s when my friend Chidambaram joined him as a junior. I would often visit him at Harrington Road in his chambers, and he would help us with advice. Although he mentions in his autobiography that the one thing he regrets in life is smoking, I have never seen him smoke,” Ram told the audience.
Describing the book as “very readable”, Ram said the autobiography focuses on Venugopal’s family, his wanderlust and his daring nature. “He was considered irresponsible by his parents for taking risks,” he said.
Raian Karanjawala, who co-founded the 39-year-old law firm Karanjawala & Co, spoke of how Venugopal lived his life with an ethical compass, coupled with his “two constant companions: a sense of honour and morality”.
“There was no sermonising or sanctimoniousness when it came to him, Karanjawala said, recalling a time when Venugopal represented lawyers during the 1988 police-lawyer clashes at Tis Hazari Court.
“One time, he fought on behalf of the Bar when former IPS officer Kiran Bedi assaulted young lawyers,” Karanjawala said.
Karanjawala highlighted Venugopal’s multi-faceted personality, noting how he quietly rose to the top in most endeavours in an unassuming fashion. He also recounted an incident about a particularly difficult client who was notorious for not paying, but finally had to pay his dues after Venugopal intervened.
Labelling Venugopal a connoisseur of all fine things in life, Karanjawala shared an amusing story about how the late senior advocate Murlidhar C. Bhandare once brought out a snake liquor after dinner and challenged his friends to try it.
“The liquor bottle had a dead snake inside, and when he asked who wanted to try it, only one person was brave enough to muster the courage to do so, and it was Venugopal,” Karanjawala said.
Although Venugopal’s book is an autobiography, one of his juniors, advocate Suhasini Sen, has also been mentioned as its co-author.
Sen said the only disagreement she had with Venugopal was over her name being featured on the book’s cover.
“I felt since this was his autobiography and he had pored over and pondered every sentence, the question of anybody else’s name on it was out of the question.
But he insisted, that’s the kind of senior he is,” she said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)