From its founding member to a fierce critic, former union law minister and Rajya Sabha MP Shanti Bhushan’s stint with the Aam Aadmi Party may have lasted only three years, but was instrumental in paving the way for the party’s arrival on the national stage. The 97-year-old, who passed away Tuesday, had famously donated Rs 1 crore to the party the day it was founded, in November 2012. But that was not all. Associated with the anti-corruption movement helmed by social activist Anna Hazare and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bhushan was among the first few members of AAP and acted as a guide for the then fledgling party. “Shocked and pained to hear this news. The country has lost one of the greatest legal luminaries of our times. God bless his soul,” Kejriwal tweeted on Tuesday night. Shocked and pained to hear this news. The country has lost one of the greatest legal luminaries of our times. God bless his soul. — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 31, 2023 Those closely associated with AAP say Bhushan’s association with the anti-corruption movement in 2011 and subsequently with the AAP extended to the initial days of the 49-day government that the party formed in Delhi in 2013. “He was an active part of all key meetings held initially, where the party’s constitution and structure were discussed. He was an ace lawyer with immense respect in legal circles, also guiding the party in legal positions and issues related to its main plank of anti-corruption,” said a former senior party member. Tensions arose when the AAP decided to form the government in Delhi in 2013 with outside support from the Congress. “Bhushan was against the decision of forming a minority government with Congress support. That was the first time Kejriwal and Bhushan disagreed strongly on an issue, but differences were resolved, especially after the former decided to step down as CM over the Jan Lokpal Bill being introduced in the Assembly,” said a partyman. In 2015, Bhushan praised BJP’s decision to field Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate. He also said AAP needed a “reorientation” and seemed to have forgotten the principles it began with. Just weeks earlier, party insiders say, he, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had raised objections over the selection of some candidates for the 2015 Delhi assembly elections. Some, but not all, the candidates were changed, and many won the polls. Kejriwal had at the time said the disagreement was an example of “internal democracy”. After AAP came to power with 67 out of 70 seats, the distance between the two factions grew wider, with Prashant and Yadav being expelled from the party later that year. AAP was not Bhushan’s only, or his most significant, political association though. He fought Raj Narain’s case against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, related to electoral malpractices, after which her election to Lok Sabha was voided in 1975, prior to the imposition of the Emergency. A member of the Janata Party, Bhushan was appointed union law minister after it came to power. He was also a founding member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and remained one till 1986. “Shanti Bhushan was a man who never minced his words, which is why he was always a misfit in politics,” said one AAP leader.
