Arjun Ram Meghwal
Meghwal in 2017
Minister of Law and Justice[a]
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 May 2023
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Kiren Rijiju[b]
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 September 2017
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Ananth Kumar Narendra Singh Tomar Pralhad Joshi
Minister of State for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises,
In office 30 May 2019 – 7 July 2021
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Prakash Javadekar
Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs,
In office 5 July 2016 – 3 September 2017
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Arun Jaitley
Minister of State for Water Resources, Government of India
In office 5 July 2016 – 3 September 2017
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Uma Bharti
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 May 2009
Preceded by	Dharmendra Deol
Constituency	Bikaner
Minister of State for Culture
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 July 2021 Serving with Meenakshi Lekhi
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Office Established
Personal details
Born	(1953-12-20) 20 December 1953 (age 69) Bikaner, Rajasthan, India
Spouse	Pana Devi ​ (m. 1968)​
Parents	Lakhu Ram Meghwal (father) Hira Devi Meghwal (mother)
Occupation	Civil servant
Website	arjunrammeghwal.com
Source: [1]

Arjun Ram Meghwal (born 20 December 1953) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Law and Justice, Government of India since 2023 And Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs since 2017 & Culture since 2021 in the Second Modi ministry. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Meghwal formerly served as Chief Whip, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises from 2019 to 2021, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs from 2016 to 2017 and the Minister of State for Water Resources from 2016 to 2017. He is also a member of Lok Sabha since 2009 representing the Bikaner constituency, Rajasthan. He was awarded the Best Parliamentarian in 2013.

Early life

He was born to Lakhu Ram Meghwal and Hira Devi in the small village of Kishmidesar in Bikaner, Rajasthan. He is a Master of Arts in Pol. Science, LLB and MBA from Dungar College in Bikaner and University of Philippines in Philippines.^[1][2] He was also an IAS Officer in Rajasthan Cadre and seen as the face of Schedule caste in Rajasthan.^[3]

He is married to Pana Devi with whom he has two sons and two daughters. He is a good player of badminton and was a bureaucrat by profession.^[4] His cousin Madan Gopal Meghwal is also a politician from Indian National Congress.^[3]

Career

After completing graduation in Law in the year 1977 and post-graduation in Arts in the year 1979 as a regular student, In 1982, he qualified the RAS Exams and got elected for the Rajasthan Udhyog Seva. He was appointed as Assistant Director in the Jila Udhyog Kendra and worked as the General Manager of Jila Udhyog Kendra of Jhunjhnu, Dhaulpur, Rajsamvad, Jaipur, Alwar & Shriganganagar districts of Rajasthan.

In the year 1994, he was appointed as the Officer on Special Duty to Mr. Hari Shankar Bhabhra, then Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan. While working as OSD to Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan was also having charge of the General Manager of Jila Udhyog Kendra, Jaipur. In the same year, he was elected as the State President for Rajasthan Udhyog Seva Parisad. Then, he was appointed as Additional Collector (Development) in Barmer. Later on, he won the election of General Secretary for Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Welfare Society, Rajasthan. He was promoted as IAS officer of the 1999 batch in the Rajasthan cadre & worked in many administrative posts like Deputy Secretary, Technical Education; Special Secretary, Higher Education; Managing Director, Rajasthan Laghu Udhyog Nigam Limited; Additional Commissioner; Commercial Tax Department; District Collector and District Magistrate, Churu. He took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service in order to join politics.

Political life

In the year 2009, he got elected as a Member of Parliament^[5] representing the Bhartiya Janata Party from Bikaner Constituency. On 2 June 2009, took oath as a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha. In the general election of 2014, he got re-elected from the Bikaner Constituency for the 16th Lok Sabha. During his 2nd term as an MP, he was Chief Whip of Bhartiya Janta Party in Lok Sabha. The speaker of Lok Sabha also nominated him as the Chairman of the House Committee, Lok Sabha.

In May 2019, Meghwal became Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.^[6]