Jai Ram Reddy (born 12 May 1937) is an Indo-Fijian politician, who
has had a distinguished career in both the legislative and judicial branches of
the Fijian Government. he was oppointed as Attorney General and Minister of Justic in Ratu Kamisese Mara ministry in April 1987. In 1998, he received Fiji's highest honour, the
Companion of the Order of Fiji, in recognition of his services to his country.
As leader of the National
Federation Party (NFP), he was Leader of the Official Opposition from 1977 to
1983, and again from 1992 to 1999. He went on to serve as President of the Fiji
Court of Appeal. He held this post briefly in 2000, and again from 2002 to
2003. On 31 January 2003, the United Nations General Assembly elected him as a
member of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is responsible
for the prosecution of war crimes.
Jai Ram Reddy caste and Immigration certificate
Early life
The eldest of five children
born to Pethi and Yenkatamma Reddy, Jai Ram Reddy was born at Lautoka Hospital
on 12 May 1937. Jai Ram Reddy’s grandparents came from India as indentured
labourers. They were of South Indian ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Bayanna,
came aboard the Elbe III in 1903 from the Kalicherla village, Madanapalle, Cudapah district, then in the Madras
Presidency but now in the province of Andhra Pradesh. He was a Kamma, descended
from the warrior caste, the kshatriyas, as they are known in other parts of the
Indian subcontinent. Jai Ram’s maternal grandfather, Iyyappa Reddy, also
journeyed on the same ship bringing the first full consignment of indentured
labourers from South India. He was from the district of North Arcot of the
Reddi caste. From 1903 through to the final shipment of indentured labourers
arriving in 1916, over 15,000 South Indians had gone there. North Arcot was, by
far, the largest supplier of South
Indian indentured labour, and Cuddapah among the smallest.
Jai Ram Reddy's grandfather Bayanna
The Kammas and the Reddis
(which means an ear ornament) were prominent and proud cultivators in Southern
India, and many were village leaders in their communities as well.
Everyone remarks upon the
toughness and resourcefulness of the Kammas and the Reddis and their readiness,
even eagerness, to take on a fight if a cause has to be defended, or if family
honour is at stake. ‘They are as a rule fine, well-built class of cultivators,
very proud and exclusive,’ wrote Rev. J Cain of the Kammas in 1879. HA Stuart
thought them ‘most industrious and intelligent cultivators,’ and they were
‘without peers.’10 Several well known proverbs in South India attest to the
Kammas’ industry and independence. Kamma vani chetulu kattina nilavadu (though
you tie a
Kamma’s hands, he will not remain quiet); Kamma vandlu cherite
kadama jatula vellunu (if Kammas come in, other castes go out); Kamma variki bhumi
bhayapadu tunnadi (the earth fears the Kammas). In old days, and even now,
lines on the ground are readily drawn.
Education and Career
Educated initially at Sri
Vivekananda High School in Nadi and then at DAV College in Suva, Reddy enrolled
in the University Entrance class at Wellington Technical College, New Zealand,
in April 1955, and was the only non-accredited student in the college to pass
the examination that year. He went on to enroll in the Law faculty of
Wellington's Victoria University in 1956, graduating in 1960, when he was admitted
to the New Zealand bar. He was subsequently admitted to the bar in Fiji the
following year. From 1961 to 1966 he was Staff Solicitor and Associate at the
law firm of A. D. Patel & Co in Nadi, Fiji. From 1966 to 1968, he served as
Crown Counsel and was Principal Legal Officer in the Attorney-General's Office
from 1968 to 1970.
Political career
Reddy entered politics when he
was appointed to the Senate, in 1972, by the then leader of the opposition,
Sidiq Koya. In 1976 he was instrumental in bringing the two factions of the
party together.
Reddy replaced Sidiq Koya as
leader of the NFP in September 1977, following major internal strife which had
resulted in the party's missing out on forming the government despite its
narrow victory in the election of March 1977, and its subsequent crushing
defeat in a second election held to resolve the political stalemate in
September. Under his leadership, the NFP made substantial gains in the election
of 1982, but fell short of ousting the longtime Prime Minister Ratu Sir
Kamisese Mara, and was subsequently deposed as party leader in favour of Koya
in 1983. Reddy briefly served as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice in
the Bavadra government, in April and May 1987. Following the military coups of
1987, however, he again took over the leadership of the NFP, and continued to
lead the party throughout the 1990s. In the elections of 1992 and 1994, the NFP
won a majority of the 27 seats in the House of Representatives then reserved
for Indo-Fijians.
In the late 1990s, Reddy
decided to negotiate with the Prime Minister, General Sitiveni Rabuka, on
amending the 1990 constitution, which was widely perceived as racist and was
compared by many to South Africa's apartheid regime, as it guaranteed the
political supremacy of ethnic Fijians. As a result of these negotiations,
assisted by Sir Paul Reeves, a former Governor General of New Zealand, a new
constitution emerged, which removed all discriminatory provisions against Indo-Fijians
(except the mainly honorary office of President, which remained reserved for a
Fijian hereditary Chief). This was considered Reddy's crowning achievement. His
glory was short-lived, however. In the ensuing election of 1999, he entered
into an electoral pact with his former enemy, Rabuka, an alliance which proved
to be his undoing. Many Indo-Fijians had not forgiven Rabuka for carrying out
the coups of 1987 and for his role in the subsequent adoption of the 1990
constitution, and the NFP lost all of its seats. Reddy's parliamentary career
of some twenty years had come to an end.
Reddy married Anne, a geology
professor's daughter in 1962. They had a son, Sanjay, and a daughter, Helen.
After separating from Anne in 1970, Reddy remarried in 1972 to Chandra Wati
Singh, a Hansard reporter in the Legislative Council of Fiji. They had a
daughter, Sandhya, and a son, Prashant.
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