It was an unexpected phone call. Home Minister Amit Shah was on line. Jagdeep Dhankhar didn’t expect the caller or the message. A few days later, on July 30, 2019, he took oath as Governor of West Bengal. Till he assumed the post, he had never met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The former Vice President had taken to relaying this story often to illustrate perhaps his distance from the government.
In his four-decade-long political career, Mr. Dhankhar, 74, had worked in three parties of distinct persuasions — the Janata Dal, the Congress and finally the BJP. He may not have known Mr. Modi personally, but people close to him claim that he knew RSS intimately. In August 2024, while speaking in the upper house, he referred to the RSS as a “global think tank” with “unimpeachable credibility”.
Jagdeep Dhankhar was born in 1951 in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan and studied at Sainik School in Chittorgarh on scholarship. A graduate in Physics, he decided to pursue a career in law.
Mr. Dhankhar appeared on behalf of those accused of murdering 18-year-old Roop Kanwar, by burning her alive on her husband’s pyre on September 4, 1987. All the 45 persons charged for her death have been acquitted.
His political career began with a meeting with socialist leader Chaudhary Devi Lal. “I was not his relative… I remember the day when I saw him for the first time. When he asked me to contest the election, I replied that I was a pleader. He said to remove the ‘P’ and become a leader,” said Mr. Dhankhar, while addressing a convocation ceremony in Haryana in March this year.
