Being lawyer and politician not easy: Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that while straddling the worlds of law and politics is not easy, he ensures that Parliament remains his prime concern.

The minister said he focuses on three Ps -- Parliament, party and profession.

But Parliament comes first, he said at a book launch here yesterday.

"The lawyer who is in politics has to be in the business of multitasking. Law is demanding and so is public life," Prasad said.

The book "Courting Politics", written by lawyer Shweta Bansal and published by Eastern Book Company, documents the lives of nine lawyer-politicians -- Ravi Shankar Prasad, Arun Jaitley, Ram Jethmalani, Shanti Bhushan, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The launch was followed by a panel discussion where the speakers, mostly lawyers-turned-politicians, raised issues of law and politics.

Former law minister Kapil Sibal said law and society did not move at the same pace since law remained "static" while society moved forward.

"There is a conflict between law and politics. Law essentially supports status quo and politics destroys it. At any given point, the law is static and society has moved forward," he said.

He added, "Most of us protect the status quo even when we are in Parliament, not realising that we have to respond to the court of the people on what they want."

During the discussion panelists also presented their views on the role of courts in dealing with issues such as triple talaq.

While Prasad said triple talaq was not related to religion and concerned gender equity, Sibal disagreed with him.

"Gender justice can't be limited to one community," Sibal said.

Prasad said, "The issues of triple talaq relates to gender justice, gender equity and gender dignity".