Minister, MLA, Guv, V-P: Tracing Dhankhar's path

Harpal Rathi still remembers the day, 60 years ago, when 11-year-old Jagdeep Dhankhar had come to take admission at the Sainik School in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh. Back then, Rathi was a teacher in the school.

- Joydeep Thakur and Sachin Saini

"He was a kid. But even then he had himself filled up the admission form in English. His brother Kuldeep used to say that Jagdeep had brought five dictionaries with him to school. His English used to surprise the teachers. He stood first in the essay writing competition in 1965, which was published in the school magazine," said Rathi, adding that Dhankhar even scored well in Sanskrit.

That trait never left him. During his three years of gubernatorial tenure in West Bengal, when Dhankhar would berate the Mamata Banerjee administration and attack it through public addresses, long official letters and the social media, he personally drafted the letters.

"Being a lawyer, he was well aware of the legal ramifications and would choose the words and phrases in his messages and letters very carefully. He would ensure that he never crossed the ambit and was politically correct. Even though sometimes he was more strident in his criticisms against the administration than the opposition, the ruling Trinamool Congress party couldn't drag him to court," said a bureaucrat, declining to be named.

Born on May 18, 1951, at Kithana, a village in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, the septuagenarian completed his education in Rajasthan. He graduated with Physics honours from Rajasthan University. He then completed his LLB from the same university and enrolled as an advocate in the Rajasthan Bar Council. Since 1990, he practised mainly in the Supreme Court.