Ravi Shankar Prasad (English: Ravi Shankar Prasad, born – 30 August 1954, Patna, Bihar) is a lawyer and politician. Apart from this, he has been the ‘Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and Law’ in the Government of India in the seventeenth Lok Sabha. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha in Parliament and represents the state of Bihar. For years, Ravi Shankar Prasad held national level responsibilities in the youth wing of BJP and the party organization. He became an MP in 2000 and in 2001 he was Minister of State for Coal and Mines in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government.
Ravi Shankar Prasad was born in a Kayastha family of Patna in Bihar on 30 August 1954. He has a B.A. (Hons.), M.A. in Political Science and LLB degree from Patna University. His father Thakur Prasad was a renowned lawyer of Patna High Court. He married Dr. Maya Shankar on 3 February 1982. She has also been a professor of history at Patna University.[1]
Ravi Shankar Prasad’s political career began as a student leader in 1970. He actively participated in protests against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and worked as an active student leader of ABVP in the student movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan. During his college days, Ravi Shankar Prasad became the Assistant General Secretary of Patna University Students Union and has been a member of the BJP National Executive since 1995. Ravi Shankar Prasad is often in the headlines for his tough stance.[2] During his student life, he has been the Assistant General Secretary of Patna University Students Union and a member of the University Senate and Finance Committee, Arts and Law Faculty.
Ravi Shankar Prasad was the lead lawyer who argued the PILs in the fodder scam and bitumen scam against former Bihar Chief Minister and former Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. He also represented former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani in several cases in the Patna High Court. In 2010, Prasad was one of the three advocates in the long-running Ayodhya case in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court.
He became an MP in 2000 and the next year in 2001 he was the Minister of State for Coal and Mines in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He is the main spokesperson of the BJP. On July 1, 2002, Ravi Shankar Prasad was given additional charge of Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice. As Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, he initiated reforms in the radio, television and animation sector and the establishment of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Centre in Goa.[1]
