india

Updated: May 31, 2019 15:10 IST

Ravi Shankar Prasad, 63, was made the Minister of Law and Justice, Minister of Communications and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology in PM Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, a lawyer by profession, is a first-time member of the Lok Sabha from Patna Sahib, where he defeated former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) colleague Shatrughan Sinha, who contested as a Congress candidate.

Prasad had been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2000. A law graduate from Patna University, Prasad came into prominence when he became the main lawyer in a public interest litigation against former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in the so-called fodder scam, in which vast amounts of money were embezzled from the state treasury for ostensibly procuring fodder and medicine for livestock. Prasad took active part in student agitations during the 1970s, organising protests against Indira Gandhi’s government during her emergency rule in the mid-1970s. Prasad has held several ministerial portfolios, including the law and justice and electronics and information technology, in the first term of the Narendra Modi government.