He is the only Indian in the history of the American legal system to be the Dean of an American Law school and that too for 26 years until he stepped down to accept the post of Ambassador at Large for NRI and PIO affairs last year. May 12th is named “Agnihotri Day” in Louisiana in his honor and Dr. B.K Agnihotri, is also the recipient of the Israel Peace Prize in 1998. Hailing from an army family, Dr. Agnihotri was an ace student and debater excelling and winning trophies both in English and Hindi. He became the youngest judge at 23, and still remembers his first case where the prosecutor brought in a poor middle aged man accused of making illicit liquor. They had found one solitary bottle on his person. At that moment Dr. Agnihotri saw a woman with 6-7 children standing outside. They turned out to be his family. “I said to the prosecutor, you want to punish this entire poverty stricken family for one bottle of liquor? According to the penal code he was to be given two year’s rigorous imprisonment. I took the law in my own hands and let him go on probation. There was utter commotion in the Bar. Sir you can’t do it. It’s against the law! I said, well I have done it and now it’s the law of the land. I followed the legal system but also tempered justice with mercy.”
During his early years in India Dr. Agnihotri says that even though judges could be approached by just knocking on their doors, there was very little corruption. “There may be an occasional “sifarish”(request for partiality in judgment) but you could ignore it if you wanted to.” Dr. Agnihotri soon earned the reputation of being a very strict but fair judge. He did not hesitate even to reprimand the Commissioner of Police, when he tried to obstruct justice. Dr. Agnihotri took time off to do a no holds bar interview with Kavita with the candor and wit he has become very well known for.
You took leave and came to UCLA Berkley for higher studies. What was your first impression of USA?”
The openness of society took me totally by surprise. In India, girls did not smile at strangers. It was considered bad. Here if they didn’t smile you wondered what was wrong! In the early sixties when I came to Berkley it was immersed in the hippie revolution, even though the Law school was segregated from the influences to a large extent.”
I believe it was at UCLA that you met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr?
Yes Indeed. He gave a great speech and spent some time with me. He said B.K. if you want to live in America, take up a cause.”
And you took up the cause of the American Indian tribes?
A grant had been provided for the purpose and I visited the homes and reservations of the American Indians. I was appalled at the poor standard of living and law enforcement was not taking care of their needs so we were helping them file cases against the government. One time I was in a meeting where the Secretary of Interior came and gave a speech “You should consider this land to be your land.” When it was my turn to speak I said, “I can go back to India, a German can go back to Germany, but these American Indians have no other land to go to. This is the only land they have, so don’t just preach to them, recognize their rights. We succeeded in getting some monetary compensation for the tribes. I annoyed some people there as well, because I was out spoken and on a student visa.
You then returned to India after working in Louisiana. How were things when you returned?
I returned to India and resumed my job as a Sessions and Appellate judge. I was aghast to see the corruption that had swept through the legal system, in the 4-5 years that I had been away. People in the legal system had become very affluent through kickbacks, even though the Government had raised salaries. Every other case that I handled had a recommendation attached to it. I guess I had changed, also and had become used to the American system of work. Soon an offer came from Louisiana to become Dean of the state law school and I accepted the offer and returned to America.
What is the difference between working in the legal system here and in India?
The legal system here is very very clear. There is delay all the time in India. In New Delhi they had made an old cases court and I was made in charge of that because I was known for the swiftness with which I worked. One case was older than me!! I sat down with the attorneys and said it is a shame on the legal system and this country and we burnt the midnight oil and cleared the case in a week. Here that will never happen. As for the jury system versus just the judge making a decision, I had written a paper on it one time. To an extent perhaps an experienced judge is more competent in giving out judgement but it is also dangerous to give so much power in one hand. It can sow the seeds of corruption. In America people by and large are well educated and understand the issues very well once the judge has explained it to them.
The most exciting part of the legal system here is its openness. I taught the Governor of the state. In India we give the students legal education in a capsule form. Here the law principle evolves from the classroom. Students have to always come prepared and there is a lot of intellectual interaction”
You seemed to have achieved a lot at the Law School.
I am very proud of that. I turned this school in to a dream school. It is tough to stay so long at the top. You have to always be two steps ahead of every one and at the same time you have to prove yourself and be visibly smarter than everyone else, and keep the community, the faculty, the politicians and the students on your side. So you have to be an academician and a scholar, effective, tough as well as respected and loved and I managed to achieve that balance. This school became politically indispensable to the state as the institution is well represented in the legislative judiciary. I was also instrumental in educating a large number of the African American attorneys in the state. The African American community is not well represented in the legal profession and one third of the population is African American. You have to create a balance and give empowerment to the minorities otherwise they will remain second class citizens all their lives. Plus they also need their own people who understand their culture to represent them.”
And then you resigned after hearing from Prime Minister Vajpayee who saw the need to court NRIs and PIOs?
Yes he requested me to take care of the business. I talked to my wife and she said, you have done enough for America and American issues so let us do something for India now. I have lived in America all my life and India is now getting to be within global reach, and I felt this was the right time to get involved. The P.M said this to the people in the presence of everyone including Ambassador Lalit Mansingh, that Mansingh is the sarkari ambassador, Agnihotri is your ambassador. Whatever the embassy has not been able to do, Agnihotri will get done. He has given me a free hand to handle all the concerns of the NRIs.”
The NRI community has shown disappointment at the red tape and poor infrastructure for investment in India.
That’s true. I have talked to various entrepreneurs and members of organizations like TIE especially in California who complained of the same thing. The good news is that the Diaspora report has come up and a lot of the recommendations in the report will hopefully be approved by the government. Dual citizenship is expected to come through before the year is over and then the Parliament has to amend the Indian citizenship act of 1955, which they will if there is no opposition. The government is very serious about wooing NRIs this time and the fact that they have appointed me indicates that in great measure. This is a strong leadership, but only as strong as a coalition government can be. The pressures are immense in a coalition government so that could be affecting the way they deal with business.
So what do you see yourself focusing on?
To first bridge the gap and develop a global Indian American family. There are 20 million plus Indians living abroad but there is a lack of communication between them. For example the Indians in the Caribbean don’t know their counterparts here and the Indian Americans here don’t want to know about their Caribbean counterparts. I invited the President of Guyana and the people in Surinam to come here and meet the Indian American community here. In fact it’s amazing how much more in touch with their cultural heritage people from Guyana and the Caribbean are. Wherever I go I ask everyone to develop a connection through seminars, conventions and invite Indians from different parts of the world to come together and develop some sort of an interdependence. I am going everywhere to talk about unity to the Indian American community and managed to succeed in getting 30 odd organizations of Indian origin to join together and listen to what I had to say, in Boston. Atlanta, Houston and Chicago. I turned down an invitation to California because three different Indian organizations invited me for the same program. Now they are joining together and sending me another invitation. All the organizations have their use and value but for common causes they must join together and work together.
We also have to be sure that the Indian Americans here fully participate in the American life, socially and politically and in return they will have a power base. Whenever we have gotten involved in American business, the American have also helped us in return. We must network in all the states and influence the government and senators to further India’s and Indian American causes.
What do you think of the Bush administration considering you were very close to President Clinton?
We got President Clinton to come to the AAPI (American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) meeting. This was the first time a President came to any Indian meeting, so the NRIs have played a big role in putting the Indian community in front of the government. We have come a long way since then. Without reflecting on the previous government, this seems to be a clear headed, uncomplicated administration. We have opened the eyes of the people to terrorism and Pakistan has also agreed not to harbor terrorism because of pressure from us as they have done in the past. Ultimately all this will be beneficial to Indian causes and NRIs will be instrumental in helping out here.
What role do you see the younger generation playing?
The most important issue here is how to get the first generation to work with the second generation Indians. I told the older generation that the younger generation is losing interest in leadership after seeing all the bickering among the older group. They are born in this country and grew up in a positive atmosphere. Don’t bog them down with negativity. I also told the young lawyers and MIT students in a meeting in Boston that they have to come forward and take charge. These young professionals have the know how and the skills to make a difference. They have learnt to be people oriented and they are the future political and community leaders.
There was a big furor in the Parliament about your ties to the RSS?
I will always be proud of any associations I have had, whether it is with AAPI, the Law school or the RSS. I find the people from RSS to be honest and hard working as well as dedicated and self less. You may not agree with them all the way but you cannot doubt their sincerity. I am what I am, and I don’t regret anything. I even represented the Hare Krishna movement twice in court. I don’t like everything they do, I told the court, but they have the right just like anyone else to pursue their interests. I won the cases and never charged them a penny. In fact I have never charged any Indian in America for fighting his case.
How Indian are you and how American?
I’m very American in my work ethics and very Indian in my thinking and I have thought about India and India’s issues all my life. India has so much potential and I hope we can use American know how and work ethics in India, so India can progress in the way it should.