Avid cyclist Meghwal rides to law ministry

JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: A man of many seasons, attires and controversies, avid cyclist Arjun Ram Meghwal has rarely been known to soft-pedal on anything in his long public life that the saw the law graduate and former IAS take charge as Union law minister on Thursday.
He has flinched from nothing, not even from touting a specific brand of papad as a "cure" for coronavirus at the height of the pandemic in July 2020 when he was junior Union parliamentary affairs and heavy industries and minister.
Born to a family of weavers in Rajasthan's Bikaner, from where he has won three Lok Sabha polls on the trot since 2009 when he quit the IAS, Meghwal spun a row earlier when he said soon after the February 2019 Pulwama attack that India had "redirected" the flow of water from three rivers to Pakistan, instead of storing it for drinking and irrigation in Punjab or Rajasthan.
In 2016, Meghwal reached the Rashtrapati Bhavan for his swearing-in as minister on a cycle and did so for getting to Parliament as well.
Meghwal has had a great ride in BJP, having been its prominent Scheduled Caste face. Against this backdrop, his appointment on Thursday as Union minister of state (independent charge) of law and justice is significant. It comes ahead of the assembly elections in Rajasthan later this year, in which BJP aims to dethrone Congress, and is seen as a move to consolidate the saffron party's support within the community.
As law minister, Meghwal succeeded Kiren Rijiju whose 22-month tenure saw frequent run-ins with the judiciary. Meghwal's stint at the Centre is proof of his varied abilities. He was honoured with the Best Parliamentarian Award in 2013.
Meghwal was married at 13 to Pana Devi. The couple have two daughters and two sons.