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The Rediff Special/ The NCRC panel

They who might modify the Constitution

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The National Constitution Review Commission had attracted flak even before it began its work. And some of it was attributed to its members and their biases. Here are some brief sketches of the members of 11-member commission:

M L Venkatachaliah (Chairman): Is a former chief justice of India and second chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Before that, he was a judge in the Karnataka high court and worked his way up to the chief justice there. He is a legal luminary and judicial activist respected as a champion of human rights. Justice Venkatachaliah is learnt to have earned the respect of his fellow judges and the legal community by telling Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he would only be the commission's chairman if the government promised not to tamper with the basic features of the Constitution.

Soli Sorabjee: The attorney-general of India, he has been in the legal profession ever since he graduated in law from Bombay. He was a senior government law officer for several terms and was appointed the attorney-general by the Vajpayee government, which has been impressed by his formidable credentials. He enjoys the confidence of all political parties and is known to be non-controversial.

Justice K Punnaiah: Is a retired chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh high court. A noted constitutional expert and judicial activist, he is known to be 'straightforward', commands the respect of all sections of society and is a champion of human rights.

B P Jeevan Reddy: Currently chairman of the Law Commission of India, his three-year term comes to an end this August 31. He is a retired supreme court judge and a former chief justice of Andhra Pradesh high court. He is known as a socialite and a judicial activist. Known to be close to former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Purno A Sangma: Former chief minister of Meghalaya. Was a Union minister of state in the Rajiv Gandhi government and a minister of state in the Narasimha Rao government. He was later elevated to cabinet rank.

An MP for six terms, he was made Lok Sabha speaker in 1998. Was the first of his kind to initiate a discussion on the functioning of Parliament and had a resolution passed on the matter. Fell out with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and returned to the Lok Sabha on a ticket from the Nationalist Congress Party, which he formed with party chief Sharad Pawar and colleague Tariq Anwar.

Opposed the NCP alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, he is reportedly 'soft' on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Meghalaya.

Cushrow R Irani: Chief editor of The Statesman, in which he writes about legal issues in his weekly column. He has worked as an insurance salesman and in the Britannia biscuit company. A critic of the Bofors howitzer deal, he is also known as a champion for freedom of the press.

Subhash Chandra Kashyap: The former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha is a constitutional expert who has written books on parliamentary procedures and rules of business. He is now a honorary professor in the Centre of Policy Research.

R S Sarkaria: He came into prominence in the early eighties when he became the chairman of the Commission on Centre-State relations. He went into all aspects of centre-state relations, so that the Opposition then frequently quoted from his commission's work. He made a strong case for why the states should enjoy real autonomy and wrote extensively about Article 356 of the Constitution and why it ought to be sparingly applied.

K Parasaran: The attorney-general in the early years of the Narasimha Rao government, Parasaran is a widely respected constitutional expert and judicial activist.

Abid Hussain: This former ambassador to the US is known as an intellectual bureaucrat. He was later made the acting president for life of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. But he fell out with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and was removed from his post.

Sumitra Kulkarni: Former Congress MP who joined the BJP last year, Kulkarni is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.

She campaigned stridently for BJP candidate Sushama Swaraj in the parliamentary polls from the Bellary constituency against Sonia Gandhi. She has strong anti-Congress views.

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