Abhay Ganpatrai Bharadwaj (2 April 1954 – 1 December 2020) was an Indian advocate turned politician, and a member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

when he died. A leader of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

, he was closely affiliated with the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

and the

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) () is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). History The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS a ...

since his college days. He had also unsuccessfully contested the

Gujarat Legislative Assembly Gujarat Legislative Assembly or Gujarat Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Gujarat, in the state capital Gandhinagar. Presently, 182 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from single-member c ...

elections in 1995 as an independent candidate from Rajkot West.

Early life

Abhay Bharadwaj was born on 2 April 1954 in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

, where his family lived then. In 1969 his family moved to India due to the civil war in Uganda.

Legal career

He started his career as an advocate in 1980 with the Bar Council of Gujarat. He was the lawyer who defended the accused in the Gulberg Society case, which took place during the

2002 Gujarat riots The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...

and culminated in the killing of nearly 70 residents of the neighbourhood. The trial culminated in a special court convicting 24 accused and acquitting 36 in 2016. He also served as special public prosecutor for the Gujarat government in a case of alleged misuse of power against former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma during his tenure as Rajkot district collector.

Political career

He was also a member of the 21st

Law Commission of India Law Commission of India is an executive body established by an order of the Government of India. The Commission's function is to research and advise the Government of India on legal reform, and is composed of legal experts, and headed by a ret ...

and contributed towards legislation like

Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 is an Act of the Parliament of India criminalising triple talaq. In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India declared triple talaq, which enables Muslim men to instantly divorce thei ...

and

Uniform civil code The Uniform Civil Code (Hindi: समान नागरिक संहिता, IAST: Samāna Nāgarika Saṃhitā) is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless ...

. The government also appointed him on the committee to select a presiding officer for the central government's industrial tribunal. He was sworn into the Rayja Sabha on 22 July 2020 as BJP MP.

Death

Bharadwaj died of complications from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

on 1 December 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

References

External links

https://www.deshgujarat.com/2020/03/11/abhay-Bharadwaj-and-ramila-bara-bjp-candidates-for-rajya-sabha-election-in-gujarat/
* *https://theprint.in/politics/2002-defence-lawyer-unknown-prof-modis-friend-the-3-bjp-rs-picks-that-stunned-party/380022/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Bharadwaj, Abhay 1954 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Indian lawyers 21st-century Indian lawyers Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India People from Kampala Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat