Ex-Foreign Secy, 26/11 prosecutor among 4 nominated to Rajya Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the nominations. Congratulating Shringla, he posted on X, “Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla Ji has excelled as a diplomat, intellectual and strategic thinker. Over the years, he’s made key contributions to India’s foreign policy and also contributed to our G20 Presidency.”

Shringla is a 1984-batch IFS officer and served as India’s Ambassador to the US, High Commissioner to Bangladesh, and Ambassador to Thailand. In 2019, during his tenure as the envoy to the US, the “Howdy Modi” event was held in Texas. The 63-year-old was the Foreign Secretary from 2020 to 2022 and served as the chief coordinator of India’s G-20 presidency in 2023.

Ujjwal Nikam, 72, is best known as the man who prosecuted Kasab, and is the go-to man whenever a complicated or high-profile case crops up. “Ujjwal Nikam’s devotion to the legal field and to our Constitution is exemplary,” Modi posted on X. “He has not only been a successful lawyer but also been at the forefront of seeking justice in important cases …”

Following the announcement, Nikam told ANI, “Yesterday, the PM called me and asked, ‘Ujjwal ji, should I speak in Marathi or Hindi? I started laughing, and he also laughed. I told him, ‘You know both languages well.’ He then switched to Marathi and told me that the President has entrusted me with new responsibilities and asked if I was ready to take them on. I immediately said yes.”

Nikam has represented the state in cases such as the 1993 Bombay blast trial, the murder of music executive Gulshan Kumar in 1997, the 2006 murder of BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, and the 2006 Khairlanji massacre in which four members of a Dalit family were killed.

The case that made him a household name across the country was the trial of Kasab. During the proceedings, Nikam claimed the terrorist had demanded biryani in jail. However, he later admitted he had “made up the statement as there was a sympathetic wave building towards Kasab”, who was hanged in November 2012.

In May 2024, Nikam resigned as special public prosecutor to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North Central on a BJP ticket.

However, he lost to the Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad by more than 16,000 votes. Nikam was then reappointed as the special public prosecutor and was handling cases such as the 26/11 attack case against Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal and the murder charges against Vijay Palande who challenged Nikam’s reappointment, claiming “he would act to further the BJP’s agenda and may go to any extent to secure false convictions”.

Congratulating Meenakshi Jain, Modi wrote on X, “It’s a matter of immense joy that Dr Meenakshi Jain Ji has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Rashtrapati Ji. She has distinguished herself as a scholar, researcher and historian…”

Jain taught history at Delhi University’s Gargi College for over three decades and authored the NCERT textbook on Medieval India during the Vajpayee government’s tenure. Her book replaced the one authored by historian Satish Chandra and was, in turn, replaced once the Congress-led UPA came to power in 2004.

Jain became a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research during the Modi government’s first term and was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2020. A Senior Fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research at present, she has written several books. One of those is Rama and Ayodhya that traces, in depth, the conflict over the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

Delhi University Teachers’ Association president Dr A K Bhagi described Jain’s nomination as a moment of joy, saying, “Only our ideology can provide such an honour to teachers.”

The sole politician on the list, retired schoolteacher Sadanandan Master survived an attack in north Kerala’s Kannur three decades ago in which he lost both his legs.

The 61-year-old, who was last week appointed one of the Kerala BJP vice-presidents, hails from Perinchery village near Mattannur, Kannur, that is considered a CPI(M) stronghold. Although from a family of Communist supporters, he joined the RSS’s student wing ABVP and was officially a part of the Sangh by 1984. For a time, he was the Sangh’s boudhik pramukh in Ernakulam, responsible for the ideological training of the cadre. By 1994, he was the RSS sahkaryavah (joint general secretary) for Kannur.

On the night of January 25, 1994, he was walking home after alighting from a bus at Uruvachal near Mattannur when a group of suspected CPI(M) workers attacked him. Sadanadan later recalled, “A gang suddenly started hurling bombs, seeking to create a scare, and people started running and shut their shops. The gang approached me from behind and caught me. They laid me down on the road, then hacked both my legs below the knee and threw them away. No one dared to come to help me until the police arrived and took me to the hospital.”

After a few months in the hospital, Sadanandan, who has had prostheses for both legs, returned to his school, which was struggling to attract students. The BJP then appointed him sub-editor in the party mouthpiece Janmabhumi. In 1999, he joined as a teacher in a school in Thrissur run by the Sangh Parivar.

In the 2016 Assembly elections, in which the BJP made “CPI(M)-sponsored” violence a key issue, Sadanandan was fielded from the Koothuparamba Assembly constituency, where some of the brutal political killings in Kannur took place in the 1990s. He finished third behind K K Shailaja of the CPI(M) and the JD(U) candidate K P Mohanan, polling over 20,000 votes. Sadanandan retired as a teacher from a school in Peramangalam in Thrissur in 2020 and in recent years has been active with the Bharatiya Vichara Kendram, an intellectual wing of the RSS, and writes columns in the media.

“Shri C. Sadanandan Master’s life is the epitome of courage and refusal to bow to injustice. Violence and intimidation couldn’t deter his spirit towards national development. His efforts as a teacher and social worker are also commendable … Best wishes for his role as MP,” Modi wrote.

— With ENS Delhi inputs