Profile of V. Shruti Devi

A brief profile of V. Shruti Devi

[Update included on 22nd Sept., 25th Sept., 2022:

V. Shruti Devi (Shruti Devi Vyricherla)

Advocate, Supreme Court of India since 1997;

Member, INC, since 1998;

National-level pro bono advisor to UPA 1 & 2 govts.

Grassroots activist and campaigner

Special Invitee, AICC 2010;

PCC Delegate 2017/18; 

AICC Member, 2018

INC Lok Sabha Contestant from Araku (Lok Sabha, 2019);

Vice President, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee 2020-'21

Set up a branch office of private law chamber (for occasional appearances in the Supreme Court) in the NCR, Gurugram, 2020

PCC Delegate from Andhra, September, 2022

Member, SCBA since 2015, and has currently applied (2022), for the conferment of Senior Advocate designation via the Supreme Court, to continue to work as an independent advocate]

Updates inserted on 3rd Sept., 2018, 12th July, 2020, and 26th, 27th, 31st. July, 2020

V. Shruti Devi, born on 30^th December, 1972, is a citizen of India, and an Indian political activist, Supreme Court lawyer, writer-poet, and a member of the Indian National Congress Party (INC), Shruti was the Indian National Congress party's Parliamentary candidate from Araku Lok sabha in 2019. 

Shruti Devi was a key politico-legal advisor in connection with legislative business and institutions of democracy through the ten years of Dr. Manmohan Singh's UPA government, and has been an active voice in the opposition since.

She fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election for the INC party with determination and courage, and demonstrated a strong commitment to the values of Mahatma Gandhi's party of peace, freedom, truth, and non-violence, to the Constitution of India, and especially towards standing for little-heard voices of Dalit communities, girls, and women. She has achieved this despite her father, a senior congress leader and former Central Cabinet Minister, V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo, whose brand of politics she had helped create for decades, having left the INC party and joined the regional Telugu Desam Party at the last minute on the eve of the 2019 general elections.

Shruti agreed to take on the post of Vice President, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, a post she holds along with ten others, since early 2020, just before the Covid-19 lockdown, on being earnestly requested to do so by the Andhra Pradesh State party unit.

Her priorities are to work towards World Peace, and help the planet move towards goals of justice, equality and freedom, preferably through good governance (transparency; efficiency; meaningful consultations; rooting out of corruption and malpractices; revamping the structure of several institutions; working towards principles of equity, -especially gender-justice-, to be actualized in all processes of governance), and democratic socialism as envisaged by the Constitution of India.

She supports the long-term aim of global nuclear disarmament, and the ideal of common but differentiated responsibilities of individuals (and countries) in the context of sustainable development. 

Shruti is also a cultural figure in the context of the family’s background of being Tribal Chiefs who have consistently worked to maintain and attain democratic ideals (including at the grassroots level), for the people.

Shruti formally joined the Indian National Congress Party (INC) in December, 1998, before which she was a supporter of the undivided congress party, and then a volunteer with the Congress (Socialist) party. Her party membership-renewal papers are up-to-date as on 13^th May, 2017. 

[Updated on 3rd Sept., 2018: Shruti has, after twenty years of full-time work on a voluntary basis for the party, now risen to the post of being a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 2018]

[Update inserted on 7th July, 2020: V. Shruti Devi was the INC's Lok Sabha Candidate from the Araku parliamentary Constituency in the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2019, and is currently Vice President, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, appointed in early 2020.
Her latest book of politico-legal poems, Ad Altiora Nitimur, is scheduled to be at the Frankfurt International Book Fair in October, 2020, and was on display at the Public Library Association's annual event in early 2020 in the USA].

In 2018, the Supreme Court Bar Association awarded V. Shruti Devi a Certificate of Honour for two of her books: Deep Wood Trance (fiction), and EARTH REPUBLIC: Chatter from the Capital's Cauldron (and Beyond) (non-fiction). 

The latter was on exhibit at the annual New Titles Showcase at New York in 2018, and at the World Book Fair, New Delhi, and the Chennai Book Fair in 2019.

Shruti has worked diligently for over two decades, to play a key (and often catalytic) role in building a brand of politics that has been workable for the poorest of the poor, and for marginalised sections of society on the planet, while taking India’s governance forward in appropriate ways in the global context, including in connection with (but not restricted to) a slew of national-level legislations, as well as international treaties and conventions.

As a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India, Shruti was invited, in 1998, to be a part of a brief India Visiting Environmental Law Fellow programme to the United States of America through the Centre for Environmental Law, New Delhi, which was undertaken with the permission of the Additional Solicitor General of India at the Supreme Court, where she worked as a junior lawyer in the chambers of V. R. Reddy, from September 1997 - September 1998.

In early 1999, Shruti began appearing in matters in the Supreme Court of India via the chambers of Indu Malhotra, an Advocate on Record in the Supreme Court.

[Updated on 3rd Sept., 2018: Justice Indu Mahotra is the first woman who has been elevated from the bar to the bench in the Supreme Court of India in 2018]

The focus of Shruti’s legal work as an Independent Lawyer thereafter (May 1999 onwards), has been aimed to legally empower relevant people and communities in the area of law-and-policy-making, often in informal and voluntary co-ordination and/or consultation with political entities, civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, cultural groups, scientists, academics, experts, think-tanks, people from the government, community-based organizations and others.

Her political work spans a few decades, and has involved political campaigning; coalition-building; consensus-building; inputs for political strategizing; research, opinions and advice pertaining to day-to-day political incidents and conflicts; cultural activities; addressing grievances of party people and other civil society organizations; delivering of guest lectures at various educational and other institutions.

These activities have ranged from the village to the international level, have been on a voluntary basis, and have proved to be highly fruitful and impactful over the years.

Some of her prominent inputs have been in these categories of work:

the role played in the All-India revival of the INC party at the turn of the century (both at the formal central level of strategizing, including paper-work, as well as key networking activities in all regions of the country);

expert legal advisory and networking work in the area of Biodiversity as a member of the national-level Technical and Policy Core Group (TPCG) in order to implement the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity at the country-level (for a very modest honorarium, and did not charge fees) This also involved nation-wide and international networking;

advice rendered to the party on innumerable legislative and policy counts, and associated activism over the past two decades, which includes ten years of the UPA government’s rule;

activism and advice on cross-cutting areas from the point of view gender justice;

daily analysis and appropriate response/s to emerging situations and incidents of conflict, including follow-up where relevant;

the outstanding and unique political and legal advisory work done in connection with Tribal Rights, Local Government; Tiger Conservation, and the formulation of the Forest Rights Act;

advocacy for the formulation, and the empowerment, thereafter, of those conducting social audits connected to the world-famous MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Gaurantee Act); the Food Security Act, to name a few;

advocacy connected to litigation surrounding Bauxite mining in the Eastern Ghaats; defending Central Government legislation pertaining to land and forest rights of communities;

resolution of internal security matters;

expert inputs connected to International Law, esp Biodiversity, Climate change, and Economics;

daily analysis of, and response to parliamentary debates, and media analysis;

regular commentaries on social media;

persistent field-level outreach and networking, using various fora;

was selected by members of the international community, to be the India Monitor for aspects of the Climate change Convention in 2005;

case study on Environmental Justice and Medicinal Plants for Winrock International India;

several publications and writings available on request;

occasional strategizing and co-ordination regarding the formation of state governments and their policies, especially in congress-led states, but also in cases such as responding to the AAP party’s conditions for its crucial formation of the initial 49-day government with INC party support in order to ensure a secular government for Delhi.

Shruti’s decisions and actions in terms of her own life’s choices stand out for their altruistic and courageous nature, and personal sacrifices on many fronts have gone largely undocumented and unrecognized either by society, the media, or otherwise.

Her work has often been conducted at the point of timely and impactful intervention, irrespective of whether or not there has been any formal or organizational response to encourage her initiatives. The results of these efforts, however, have been noted with thanks by the party.

In 2010, she rose to the formal designation of Active Member of the INC, and attended the AICC Plenary as a Special Invitee in 2010 at the Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi, and is now entitled to stand for posts in the party’s organizational elections.

[Updated on 3rd Sept., 2018: 

Shruti was elected as a Pradesh Committee (PCC) Member from Andhra Pradesh in 2017, and attended the historic party meeting at Vijayawada that was a part of the process of electing the current Congress President.

AICC Member, 2018: She is currently a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), and attended the historic AICC Meeting at New Delhi in 2018, where the present Congress President, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, was formally elected and announced as the President of the party.

Shruti has also been attending party meetings at the district level, where she was invited by the District Congress Committee President to be the Chief Guest at a meeting prior to the visit of the All India General Secretary in Charge of Andhra Pradesh, which she also attended, and where she informed her party colleagues of the fact that she is an aspirant for the party's candidature to the Araku Lok Sabha (ST) Parliamentary seat for the forthcoming polls to be held in 2019. 
This is a constituency that spans four far-flung districts, the second-largest expanse in the country, second in size only to the constituency that's in the Jaisalmer desert in Rajasthan, since the delimitation exercise of constituencies came into effect in 2009. Shruti had established contacts and worked on UPA 1 - related consultations with these extended areas in the run-up to 2009, thus winning the party the larges majority in the state of undivided Andhra Pradesh from the most geographically widespread constituency of the country.]

Shruti was born in Madras, educated in Delhi, and has moved her law office to her ancestral home at The Fort in Kurupam in rural India soon after the defeat of the UPA government in 2014. Shruti travels out frequently to Delhi and elsewhere, and is active on social media.

[Updated on 3rd Sept., 2018: V. Shruti Devi is the author of :
1) EARTH REPUBLIC: Chatter from the Capital's Cauldron (and Beyond), a set of non-fiction socio-political writings with autobiographical elements, published in Feb., 2018 via Notion Press
2) Deep Wood Trance, fiction published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 2017
3) Creatures of the Current, a short fable written in 1999, published on her blog, and on Kinde Direct Publishing and Create Space, Amazon in 2014-2015
Links to these books are available at www.shrutidevi.earth
Further details on projects, publications and work are accessible on LinkedIn, the professional networking website].

Shruti’s family, and extended family, is politically very active, and her maternal as well as paternal grandfathers were members of parliament, and the state legislatures, respectively.

Prior to India’s independence, her ancestors from her mother’s side were the Rajas (or Kings) of Daspalla, which is now in Orissa. However, they were one of the few ruling families to join the people-oriented Congress Party at the time of independence.

Shruti’s paternal grandfather, Zamindar-Rajah V. Durgaprasad Deo was a member of the state legislative assembly in Madras Province, which was the relevant assembly, in that era, for those residing in what is now northern Andhra Pradesh. He passed away in a case of medical negligence on the eve of his being sworn in as a minister in the state. The Zamindars of Kurupam are Tribal Chiefs, and Shruti’s politics reflects struggles for bringing about equity and justice for tribal communities, especially women, within a paradigm of sustainable development.

Her father, V. Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo, is a senior member of the Indian National Congress Party, and was a Cabinet Minister holding two portfolios in the UPA-2 government led by the INC party.

(As discussed earlier, Shruti has played a game-changing role in building his brand of politics from 1993 onwards). At present, Deo is the first Chairperson of the party’s frontal organization for Tribal Affairs, the Adivasi Congress. As a member of the Scheduled Tribe community (the Konda Dora scheduled tribe) in Andhra Pradesh, India, he has represented the Parvatipuram (and, after delimitation, Aruku) Lok Sabha constituencies in the Lok Sabha since 1977, and had one term in the Rajya Sabha during the Prime Ministership of the late PV Narasimha Rao.

Shruti is a certified member of the Konda Dora Scheduled Tribe.

Shruti was educated in New Delhi, and studied at Mater Dei Convent School, run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, and holds degrees in English Literature and Law from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and the Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, Delhi University respectively, and a diploma in Environmental Law from the Centre for Environmental Law, WWF India.

She has concurrently ideated and provided legal opinions on a number of court matters and litigation processes over the past two decades, that pertain to public policy, mostly at the Supreme Court level, through her party, and in co-ordination with other practising lawyers and individuals, and has, through her expertise, resilient efforts and commitment, helped to win historic orders from the judiciary over time.

She values truth, honesty, justice, equality, freedom, and defends the spirit of the Constitution of India globally. Shruti believes in honouring the best practices of all world religions and faiths and cultures, including pure scientific thought, while actively debating and attempting to phase out, via the rule of law, all aspects of so-called tradition, that infringe upon or curtail human rights and dignity. This is particularly viewed through the prism of social justice, with a focus on gender-justice; child rights; the disability sector; the rights of minority populations, and, in India, the evils of the caste system.

Her efforts have always yielded exemplary results in the past, and continue to do so.

Shruti’s cultural roots and exposure are multi-faceted, and in her works, ideas and writings, the present political generation may find some inspiration for ways forward, not only for the planet, but for all realms, ranging from governance to art and beyond.

The Congress Party in India is an international party since its inception. Global consensus and brainstorming on ideology, and updates on the state-of-the art of the party’s goodwill for itself and for India prior to the election of a new Party President enhances the universal impact and reach of the party’s work.

In 1998, Shruti participated in discussions on global development and planetary conservation agendas, bringing to the table, the perspectives of the most marginalised sections of the planet. This set of discussions have helped take forward the agendas of good governance for the most disadvantaged populations across the planet from 1998 onwards, including through the work of the Indian National Congress Party and its current Party President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, who was elected as the Congress President in 1998, and continues to well-deservedly win and hold the post.

Shruti has worked, on a daily basis, in synchrony with the work of the Congress President since 1998, and has been in her presence on several occasions, including a brief but historic one-to-one official meeting to discuss work-related matters.

Languages known: English; Hindi; Oriya; Telugu; has studied Sanskrit for four years as a third language in school.

Note inserted on 8th October, 2017: Shruti is an elected member of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Comittee (APCC), which is scheduled to have its General Body Meeting on 10th October, 2017
[Updated on 3rd Sept., 2018: V. Shruti Devi is a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), and an aspirant for the party ticket for the Araku (ST) Lok Sabha Parliament constituency for the forthcoming general elections.]

Video clip from general activities in rural areas in 2007:
https://www.facebook.com/v.shruti.devi/videos/495544977027/?l=39326641548305295


Video clip of Shruti participating in the Dhimsa folk dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2z_5MvdQWw

Video clip from street theatre activism:
https://www.facebook.com/v.shruti.devi/videos/323329107027/?l=8999222439403524082

[Update added on 3rd Sept., 2018: Video footage of the book launch of EARTH REPUBLIC, New Delhi, 15th March, 2018]