The lawyer-turned politician from Bihar has spent time in jail as Lalu Prasad Yadav’s cell-mate during the anti-Emergency movement. He was also the general secretary to Lalu Yadav’s president in the Patna University students union during the turbulent 1970s. Prasad hails from an RSS background but rubbed shoulders with all the Gandhian Socialists during the Emergency.

But Lalu does not remember him as fondly as Prasad became the lead lawyer in the Public Interest Litigation against the former Bihar Chief Minister in the fodder scam case. He also represented Atal Behari Vajpayee as a lawyer in one of the political cases against the former Prime Minister in the Emergency period.

Prasad continued to practice law and politics in the BJP, rising to fame as one of the junior ministers in the Vajpayee Cabinet. He was Minister of State in the departments of Coal and Mine and Law and Justice. But his most memorable stint was as the Information and Broadcasting minister when he initiated reforms in the radio, television and animation sectors.

Born in an upper caste Kayastha family on August 30, 1954, Ravishankar did his graduation and obtained masters in Political Science and LLB degree from Patna University.

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