Ravi Shankar Prasad is an Indian lawyer and politician in the Narendra Modi government. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), representing the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. He currently holds the Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology, and Communications portfolios.
Prasad, who was an active volunteer of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), began his political career as a student leader in the 1970s. He had organised protests against the Indira Gandhi government and was also jailed during the Emergency that had been imposed in 1975. He was also associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and had held various posts in the organisation.
He became a member of the BJP in 1995 and has been a part of the National Executive Committee, the top policymaking body of the party, since then. Prasad was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2000, and he became National Convener Legal Cell for the BJP in 2001, as well as Minister of State in the Ministry of Coal and Mines.
In July 2002, Prasad was Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice (Additional charge) during the tenure of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was then appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India) in 2003. In 2005 he was appointed National Spokesperson of the BJP and in 2006 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for a second time.
He was a member of several Parliamentary Committees from 2006 to 2013 and was made All India General Secretary and Chief National Spokesperson of BJP in 2010. In 2012 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the third time and became Deputy Leader of the party in Rajya Sabha.
On May 2014, Prasad took oath as Union Minister for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Ministry of Law and Justice under the first Modi government. In 2019, under the second Modi government, he continued working under the Ministry of Law and Justice, and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and also took charge of the Communication Ministry.
PERSONAL LIFE:
Ravi Shankar Prasad was born on August 30, 1954 in Patna, Bihar in a Kayastha family to Thakur Prasad, who was a senior advocate at the Patna High Court and one of the leading founders of the Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. His sister, Anuradha Prasad, is married to Congress leader Rajeev Shukla. In 1982 he married Maya Shankar, a Historian and Professor of History at Patna University, and he has two children, a son and a daughter, with her.
Where his education is concerned, Prasad attended the Patna Collegiate School, a government high school located in Patna, and he earned his MA (Political Science) and LL.B degrees from Patna University.
LAW CAREER:
Prasad, who has been practicing law at the Patna High Court since 1980, was designated senior advocate there in 1999 and then appointed Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India in 2000.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Some of his notable achievements are reforms in the mining and coal sectors, preparing a bill to amend the Representation of People Act, reforms that improved quality and functioning of radio, television, and animation, and helping to establish Goa as the location of the International Film Festival of India.
As the Law Minister of India, he was instrumental in the passage of the law to ban the evil practice of instant Triple Talaq, which was practiced by Muslims and which affected mostly women of the community.
Prasad was adjudged as one of the top twenty leaders in the list of 100 most influential people in Digital Government 2018 by UK based think tank Apolitical. He is also known for promoting digital development in the rural areas of India.
SOCIAL:
Ravi Shankar Prasad keeps his followers updated through his Facebook - Ravi Shankar Prasad/@RaviShankarPrasadOfficial, Twitter - Ravi Shankar Prasad/@rsprasad, and Instagram - Ravi Shankar Prasad/@ravishankarprasad.
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