Kiren Rijiju: Insider, Outsider

As an “outsider” to the legal fraternity, Rijiju was not an obvious choice to be tasked with walking the tightrope between the judiciary and the executive. After all, his predecessors in the ministry have all been illustrious lawyers, many of them the who’s who of the legal fraternity. From B R Ambedkar to Ashoke Sen, Ram Jethmalani, H R Bharadwaj, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Many believe that Rijiju was chosen to the post not despite his familiarity with the legal profession but simply because of it.

When the Modi government took over in 2014, among the first big projects it took up was the task of ‘reforming’ judicial appointments. The Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, which established the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), and the NJAC Act were passed by Parliament in 2014 to set up a commission for appointing judges, replacing the existing collegium system. However, the head-on collision that then law minister Arun Jaitley had with the judiciary soon fizzled out. The laws were repealed in 2015 after the Supreme Court, in a 4:1 majority, struck them down as “unconstitutional” and violative of the “basic structure of the Constitution”. This was followed by a temporary truce and what seems to be a change in tactics — bringing in an outsider to shake up the entrenched system.

Those in the BJP say it’s his lack of familiarity in the legal circles that allows Rijiju to “express his views freely”, without any apprehensions of “hurting his friends”. This is evident in Rijiju’s rather brusque comments on the collegium’s functioning — something his party colleagues back, even if those in legal circles disapprove.

“What’s wrong in what he said? He said that the collegium system is not mentioned in the Constitution but until there is an alternative system, we will follow it. That’s a fact. Whether he should have said it is a different question,” a senior BJP leader said.

Behind this persona of an outsider who speaks his mind is a man aware of the significance of his role. “He always says he will check and get back in two days,” a source said, referring to his calibrated approach while dealing with judges. “He is just someone who takes orders and implements them. He has not been able to take any decision on his own,” said a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court.

Born in Nakhu, a village in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, Rijiju’s father Rinchin Kharu was the first protem Speaker of the state Assembly. A keen follower of sports and politics, Rijiju, who also engaged in social work, graduated from Hansraj College and then studied law. At 33, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004 on a BJP ticket, representing Arunachal West, and was noticed for his interventions in parliamentary debates. However, in the next general election, in 2009, after he was defeated by the Congress candidate by a thin margin, he announced that he was quitting to join the Congress.  “I realised that Congress seems to be in a better position to serve Arunachal Pradesh, which is such an important and sensitive state,” he had said then.

But by 2014, his heart was back in the BJP, then riding a Modi wave. Contesting on a party ticket, he defeated the Congress candidate by an impressive margin and made his debut in the government as Minister of State for Home Affairs. Rijiju’s fluent Hindi — which he attributes to studying in then Union Territory of the North-East Frontier Agency — ensured that he was never out of place in the BJP.

“It is also a case of being at the right place at the right time. BJP was on an expansion mode, especially in the Northeast region, and was looking for young leaders,” says a BJP leader.

As minister, Rijiju easily built relationships with his Cabinet colleagues, with many citing his “hard work” and “youthful energy” — attributes that have earned him goodwill from both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. A fitness freak, Rijiju has often posted videos and photographs of his gym workouts.

“He is a role model for the youth in the Northeast. Kiran has thorough knowledge about the history of the Northeastern region and it helps him to grow as a youth icon there,” says Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar.

He has never fought shy of owning his Northeast roots, even if it has occasionally landed him in a spot with his colleagues.

In 2015, Rijiju criticised his colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi for remarking that those who eat beef should go to Pakistan. Though he quickly backtracked and blamed the media for twisting his statement, he also called the “obsession” with Pakistan a “north Indian thing”. As MoS Home, his office had a wall-sized screen monitoring Chinese border movements.

Rijiju’s recent remarks on Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in the accession of Kashmir to India even triggered a public war of words between Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Karan Singh.

Despite the controversies, Rijiju’s supporters in the party maintain that it’s the absence of “godfathers” that has exposed him to attacks from his opponents, including in the legal fraternity.

At a time when the executive and the judiciary are walking a fine balance, what effect Rijiju and his propensity for shooting from the hip have on this relationship will be keenly watched.