Thursday, May 04, 2006

Pramod Mahajan

Such a tragic death to a leader so charismatic. I was thinking of writing a post on him before the event that took place on saturday, and i wish i would have written it. I was a true fan of Pramod Mahajan.

My first recollection of him was when he was made national security advisor to the prime minister, the first time the BJP came to power; he used have his parallel press conferences after India had tested the nuclear weapons in 1999. He was earlier the Defence minister in the 13 day BJP government, when was just 48!

Subsequently whenever I saw him on television I uesd to get the feeling that he will make it big in politics. The last interview I saw of him was not more than three weeks back with Vir Sanghvi. In which when asked whether he saw himself as a future PM, he had replied that in Indian politics only members of gandhi-Nehru family could be sure of becoming a PM some day. With his loss the BJP have lost a crucial gen-next leader.

I still can't believe he is no more. His popularity was reflected from the fact that leaders across party lines came to pay him a tribute. From Sonia Gandhi writting letter to his wife, to Bal Thakare, Chagan Bhujbal, LK Advani, Vajpayee, Somnath Chatterjee, to corporate leaders like Anil Ambani and Rahul Bajaj.

The last regret is that he could have been the first person from Maharashtra to become the prime minister.

May his soul rest in peace.

15 comments:

The Bhandari's said...

We also felt bad :( It's really a great loss

Suds said...

I agree with u. He was a great guy. I too noticed him first time when he was made minister in 1st vajpayee ministry.

Take care

Unknown said...

yeah man..sad news.

Anonymous said...

bad news...really...
and that too shot by his own brother...
petrifying...
he was a charishmatic persona.....a scarcity in Indian political scene...

Perestroika said...

Hi anand,
I beg to differ on lack of persona in indian politics; if at all, there are more charismatic leaders in indian politics than in the US.

Laloo prasad for one, we may not like him for his style of rule in bihar, but if see ne interview of his, he WILL make u laugh, and u cant help liking him for that one brief moment, inspite of everything.

Indian politics is a Mahabharat of its own.

But India will never have a Dick Cheney.

Anonymous said...

Mahajan's untimely death was shocking. But when was he the NSA? ASAIK, Brajesh Mishra had that job when the BJP was in power.

Perestroika said...

when the first time BJP had come to power in 1999, when it conducted the nuclear tests, pramod mahajan was the security advisor to the PM, along with Brajesh Mishra. After the re-election of the BJP led govt. however only Brajesh Mishra was the NSA, with mahajan in charge of a series of ministries.

Perestroika said...

he was the NSA in the 13 month BJP led govt along with brajesh mishra.

Amit said...

really man India has already lost many future leaders..
Sanjay Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi,Madhav Rao Sindhia, Rajesh Pilot and now Pramod Mahajan..India mourns there loss

Perestroika said...

ohh man, i never thought it that way, ur absolutely rite.

gandhi bros, scindia, pilot, mahajan, all the good ones!!!

Perestroika said...

Also vis a vis politicl parties i guess the congress has now the gen next advantage, with murli deora's son, sachin pilot, jotiraditya scindia, and the gandhi kid rahul.

Anonymous said...

pratik,

by charishmatic i meant, somebody who besides pulling crowds and making us laugh has a sensible stance towards things and makes sense when he has opinions.

and i never compared the indian political scene to the US, i just said there is a scarcity in India on its own merit.

BTW am so weak at the politics here in US

Perestroika said...

@anand

got ur point.

Anonymous said...

pratik,
nothin new these days!!
you busy with exmas or somethin'?

Perestroika said...

actually just this morning was thinkin of putting up something.