ROHATGI’S HAD ENOUGH
On June 9, when attorney general Mukul Rohatgi hailed a Supreme Court verdict linking Aadhaar and PAN numbers, it seemed like business as usual. Physically imposing, Rohatgi spoke to the media as he did in a courtroom, with fire and force. Nobody could have guessed that the very next day the chief legal advisor to Narendra Modi’s government would put in his papers and promptly skip out of the country to watch cricket in England.
“I want to return to my private practice,” Rohatgi said briefly, by way of explanation, adding that he had written to the government last month to ask that his term not be renewed. His decision is without precedent. Attorney generals are mostly the prime minister’s men, resigning only when the government falls. All of India’s 14 AGs, except the 12th, Milon K. Banerji who died on the job, and the 8th, G. Ramaswamy, who quit over scam allegations, have come and gone with the flow of political cycles.
Why did he resign? Some hint that Rohatgi was miffed that, with the PM out of town, his contract was extended only on an ad hoc basis “until further orders”. Others say the defeat over the National Judicial Appointments Commission, scrapped by the SC, was an indelible blot on Rohatgi’s record. Still others feel the AG’s pride was wounded because Harish Salve represented the government against Pakistan at the International Court of Justice in May.
Was Rohatgi too “independentminded” then, or could it be that the vast sums to be made in private practice made it too unremunerative to be the country’s preeminent lawyer? Whatever Rohatgi’s reasons, the Centre finds itself with a big hole to fill and awkward questions to answer.