Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi has long been an accomplished writer and columnist. In 2006, his book ‘Reflection of Abhishek Singvi’ was published and was widely acclaimed and came with a foreword by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi column ‘Candid Corner’ in the one of the leading dailies, Hindustan Times became much popular among the readers. Later, it was published as a book. He also wrote for a fortnightly column in ‘Indya.com’ and used to write for ‘The Pioneer’ and also ‘Dainik Bhaskar’.
Besides this , Dr. Singhvi ‘s articles have also been published in magazines and periodicals. Some Some soon to be out writings by him are ‘Collection of Legal Writings’ and ‘Emergency Powers: A Comparative Study’ are worth mentioning.
With a life of umpteen achievements before him, Dr Singhvi quit as the chairperson of the Parliament Standing Committee on Law and Justice and as the Congress Spokesman on 23rd of April, 2012
Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi is an eminent jurist, parliamentarian, visible media personality, well known columnist, author and commentator. Abhishek Manu Singhvi is a Member of Parliament; the senior most National Spokesperson of the Congress Party; the youngest designated Senior Advocate, Supreme Court (at age 34); a former and youngest Additional Solicitor General of India (ASG) (at 37) and former elected Vice President, Supreme Court Bar Association. He is currently the Chairman of the AICC All India Law and Human Rights Department and Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Law, Justice, Personnel & Grievances. Abhishek Manu Singhvi was formerly Vice Chairman of Congress’ Media Department.
BOOKS PUBLISHED
Writes a popular column, ‘Candid Corner’ in the Hindustan Times; his columns have been published in a book form as ‘Candid Corner: Reflections of Abhishek Singhvi’, 2006 with a Foreword by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and also released by him; fortnightly columnist, earlier in ‘Indya.com’, ‘The Pioneer’ and now in the ‘Hindustan Times’; also a monthly columnist in India’s largest Hindi daily, ‘Dainik Bhaskar’; has written several articles in leading magazines and periodicals; ‘Collection of Legal Writings’ (under publication) and ‘Emergency Powers: A Comparative Study’ (under publication).
The first is an article titled ‘Ensuring transparency’ by Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the prestigious magazine Seminar issue No 502: June 2001. There are two other articles – one in the India Today issue dated December 7, 1998 — an article titled ‘Official Secrets’ by Sumit Mitra, and the second — a book review in Frontline Vol 15 No. 7 dated April 4 -17, 1998 by Barbara Harriss — White. The book in question is Corruption in India – Agenda for Action Edited by S Guhan and Samuel Paul.
First the opening paragraph from the book review (in Frontline):
“TO all intents and purposes, India is the most robust of Third World democracies with most of the formal elements of good governance: a pluralist democracy, a market economy, a state intended to be developmental, a functioning civil society, institutions of free association, acknowledgement, at least in law, that transparency and information are the gateways to accountability. Yet, according to the Berlin-based NGO, Transparency International, India has the dubious distinction of being bracketed along with China and Indonesia, the world’s most corrupt countries. This means that just under half the entire world’s population has to contend with, and to fear, levels of corruption which distort all the items on the governance checklist.”
And here is a very similar first Para from Singhvi’s article (in Seminar):
“INDIA is a robust Third World country with most of the formal elements of good governance: a pluralist democracy, a market economy, a developmental state, a functioning civil society, institutions of free association, and acknowledgement, at least in law, that transparency and information are the gateways to accountability. Yet, according to the Berlin-based NGO, Transparency International, it enjoys the dubious distinction of being bracketed along with China and Indonesia as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. This means that just under half the entire world’s population has to contend with, and fear, levels of corruption which distort all the items on the governance checklist.”
Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi talks about his education experience at India’s and the world’s top educational institutions and explains how tough it is to become a senior counsel, despite having a famous father.
On the subject of being the son of a famous lawyer, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that it is not correct to say that one is born with a silver spoon and progresses through a platinum system. “It clearly gives you a push and a backup of infrastructure, with a library and a certain amount of resources. But this is a very unforgiving profession and very early on, if you do not work hard enough and if you are not able to prove yourself in a few cases, the system rejects you. The initial push is only like a rebuttable presumption in your favour. It is up to you to see that it is not rebutted.”
Talking to Rainmaker, he said that he never felt a direct attraction to law even till his days of doing an undergraduate in economics. “The omnipresent sights and sounds of law if you are from a family of lawyers makes a difference.”
“I did my schooling in St. Columba’s and did very well. I used to joke that academically everything has been downhill since then because I stood first in India. Even though during those days, law was distant in my mind, I saw my father getting dressed and going to court, I had the books of law all around me and my grandfather was a lawyer, so it does make a difference. However, there was absolutely no pressure in my case to enter the profession. In fact, there was a kind of anti-pressure. It happens by a process of elimination.”
“You think at times that you will not do what your father is doing and you examine other options. And it is the same with my two sons, I have scrupulously avoided pushing them into the profession but by a process of elimination, one is a lawyer and the other is studying law.”
Abhishek Manu Singhvi also described his study of law as having possessed a “peculiar trajectory”. “While I was doing my BA in Economics from St. Stephens, I got admission into Trinity College in Cambridge. But during the gap before the term started there, I also joined the Law Faculty of Delhi for about two months but went straight from there to Trinity, where I stayed on and completed my undregrad and my PhD and came back after six and half-odd years.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi also said that while being a good student, he was a complete introvert at school and retained some of that even in vibrant St. Stephens. It was only when he went to Cambridge, partly for survival in the strange context and climate, that he became more confident and extroverted.
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi 