Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan (प्रमोद वेंकटेश महाजन in Devanagari) (30 October, 1949 – 3 May, 2006) [1] was a prominent Indian politician. He was one of the second generation leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, at the time of his death, was locked in a power struggle over who will take over the reins of the BJP when the current aging leadership retires. He belonged to a group of relatively young "technocrat" leaders who lack a grassroots political base, although he was fairly popular in his home state of Maharashtra in western India. [2] He was a member of the Rajya Sabha and a General Secretary of his party. He had been credited with being an architect of numerous poll victories for his party, though he rarely contested direct elections himself. However, the BJP's defeat in the 2004 General elections was widely considered to be in part due to his arrogance and overconfidence, and this affected his political career adversely.
Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan | |
|---|---|
| File:Pramod mahajan 04 24 2006.jpg Pramod Mahajan | |
| Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 30 1949 Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh |
| Died | May 03 2006 Mumbai |
| Political party | BJP |
| Spouse | Smt. Rekha Pramod Mahajan (née Hamine) |
| Children | One son (Rahul Mahajan) and one daughter (Poonam) |
| Residence | Mumbai |
As of May 5, 2006 Source: [1] | |
He was blamed by many in the old guard of the BJP and the RSS for moving his party away from the culture of austerity to a "five-star" culture. His proximity to industrialists was also a cause for comment. As a minister in charge of telecommunications between 2001 and 2003, he played a major role in India's cellular revolution, but was also accused of improperly favouring Reliance Infocomm. He was widely seen as a successful Parliamentary Affairs minister due to his good relations with political parties across the ideological spectrum.
On 22 April 2006, he was shot at and fatally injured by his brother Pravin Mahajan over a family dispute. He succumbed to his wounds 11 days later.
Early life
Mahajan was born to Venkatesh Devidas and Prabhavati Mahajan in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India. The Mahajan family had migrated from their home in Mahajan gully in Osmanabad to Ambejogai and was staying in a rented house in Mangalwar Peth. Mahajan spent his childhood in Ambejogai. He was the second child of his parents, with two brothers Prakash and Pravin, and two sisters Pratibha and Pradnya. His father died when he was 21. He attended Yogeshwari Vidyalaya and Mahavidyalaya in Beed district of Maharashtra and studied at the Ranade Institute for Journalism, Pune. He obtained bachelor's degrees in Physics and Journalism and a post graduate degree in Political Science.
His love for theatre brought him close to Rekha Hamine, whom he courted and married on 11 March 1972. They have two children, daughter Poonam and son Rahul. Both his children are trained pilots. His daughter is married to Anand Rao Vajendla, an industrialist from Hyderabad.
He worked as an English teacher at the Kholeshwar college in Ambejogai between 1971 and 1974 before joining active politics during the emergency.
Early political career
Mahajan was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood, but he actively got involved when he worked as a sub-editor of its Marathi magazine, Tarun Bharat, [3] in 1970 and 71. He took part in the agitation against the state of emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was incarcerated in the Nashik central jail till it was lifted. He was one of the select batch of RSS workers co-opted into the BJP and was the general secretary of the party's state unit till 1985. Between 1983 and 1985, he was also the All India Secretary of his party. After unsuccessfully contesting the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, he became the president of the All India Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1986, a position he held again between 1990 and 1992. By virtue of his organizational skills and hard work, he rose to a prominent position, first in the Maharashtra state BJP and then at the national level.
State politics
Mahajan's aspirations were always national, but he also did a significant amount of work in building up his party's fortunes in his home state of Maharashtra. In this, he was partnered with his childhood friend-turned brother-in-law Gopinath Munde (who was married to his sister Pradnya). Mahajan was responsible for his party's alliance with the Shiv Sena. He had to overcome the reluctance of seniors, both in the BJP and the RSS, who considered the Shiv Sena to be a party of the lumpen. However, all indications are that the alliance for him was entirely pragmatic, and he did not share the extremist beliefs of the Shiv Sena. The alliance went on to win the state assembly elections in 1995 and ruled till 1999. Munde was the deputy chief minister in that government.
Though in recent years the alliance has come under strain because the Sena has been in a decline, Mahajan was reportedly one of the few who advised caution before breaking off, primarily because he wanted the BJP to gain more strength before taking such a step.
National politics
Mahajan came to play a vital role during the coalition era of the late 1980s. He rose to national prominence when he helped organize BJP President Lal Krishna Advani's Rath Yatra in 1990.
Despite being credited with responsibility for his party's numerous election victories, Mahajan rarely contested or won popular elections himself. He had been elected to Parliament many times, but mostly through the Rajya Sabha, the indirectly elected upper house. He was served on the Rajya Sabha in 1986-87, 1992-96, 1998-99 and most recently in 2004. He was elected to the Lok Sabha once in 1996,but lost in 1998.
Government
The Lok Sabha elections of 1996 brought the BJP to power and Mahajan was appointed Defence Minister in Vajpayee's 13 day ministry. When the BJP returned to power in 1998, he first appointed as advisor to the Prime Minister. He resigned from that post to contest Rajya Sabha elections in July 1998. In December 1998, he was appointed the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, and Food Processing. A year later, in October 1999, he was moved to Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources. He relinquished the portfolio of Water Resources in just a month in November 1999 and took charge of Information Technology.
In 2001, he was appointed [4] to the Communications ministry under controversial circumstances. The earlier telecom policy of the government, formulated in 1994, [5] had allowed private participation in cellular telephony after open bidding, on payment of a license fee determined during the bidding. However, after winning the contracts the telecom companies found themselves unable to pay the fixed license fees, allegedly because the victors fell victim to the Winner's curse. [6] The then Minister for Communications, Jagmohan attempted tough action [7] against the defaulting companies, but was sacked. [8] After this, Prime Minister Vajpayee himself took over the cabinet portfolio (with Ram Vilas Paswan as minister of state) and oversaw the formulation of the New Telecom Policy of 1999. [9] The policy replaced fixed license fees with a revenue sharing agreement, a move that was widely criticized [10] for changing rules midway and causing loss of revenue to the government. Mahajan, who succeeded to the post in August 2001, after a cabinet reshuffle (that also merged the department of Information technology with the Telecommunications portfolio) had the task of implementing this policy.
During his tenure, the number of new telephone connections enjoyed unprecedented growth and rentals fell by a large amount. However, he was also accused of favouring Reliance Infocomm by allowing it to offer full nationwide mobility through WLL without payment of the required license fees. [11]
He was also involved in a dispute [12] with the then Disinvestment minister Arun Shourie over the privatization of VSNL. These controversies may have been the reason why he was dropped from the cabinet in the reshuffle of 2003. There was also speculation that he was a casualty of the silent intra-party battle between Vajpayee and Advani [citation needed]. Shourie succeeded him to the Communications portfolio. [13] Mahajan was appointed the General Secretary of the BJP . He contested media speculation that this was a demotion, saying that there were no differences between him and the party and that he has just changed the postion from chariot rider to charioteer [citation needed].
The Shivani Bhatnagar affair
Mahajan was accused of orchestrating the murder of former Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar by Madhu Sharma, the wife of IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma who was himself accused of the murder and in police custody. [14] Bhatnagar had been murdered in January 23, 1999. The investigation had gone on for three years and was out of the media spotlight till Sharma's arrest. [15] His motive for the murder, according to the Delhi Police, was that he had fathered Bhatnagar's child and was under pressure from her to marry him. Madhu made statements in the press claiming that it was in fact Mahajan who had the affair and fathered the journalist's child. She challenged him for a DNA test to prove her case. Mahajan agreed to take a DNA test but eventually didn't as the Delhi Police rubbished Sharma's claim as an emotional outburst as she was unable to provide any concrete evidence in support of her charges.
2003 and 2004 elections
Assembly elections were held in four Indian states in December - Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Mahajan was put in charge of Rajasthan. [16] The BJP consciously chose to play down the Hindutva platform. [17] Nonetheless, the elections turned out to be a resounding victory for the BJP, which won in all four states[18]. Emboldened by this success, Vajpayee called early elections in 2004 and Mahajan was given charge of the campaign. However, the BJP performed unexpectedly poorly in them, losing power to the Indian National Congress. Mahajan personally accepted responsibility for this defeat. [19]
Death
On the morning of 22 April 2006, Mahajan's estranged younger brother, Pravin shot him four times with his licensed .32 Browning pistol inside the former's apartment in Mumbai following a dispute. Four bullets were fired. The first missed Mahajan, but the other three were lodged in his liver and pancreas, damaging several internal organs. Mahajan was taken to the Hinduja hospital where he was operated upon. One of the world's foremost liver specialists, Dr. Mohamed Rela flew in from London to treat him [20]. He went through an emergency surgical procedure on Sunday, 23 April to remove the excess fluids from his body. After struggling for his life for 12 days, Mahajan suffered from a cardiac arrest and died on 3 May 2006 at 4:10 pm IST. [21]
He was given a state funeral [22] at the Shivaji Park crematorium in Dadar, Mumbai on May 4, 2006.
Pravin's arrest and chargesheet
Pravin Mahajan surrendered at the Worli Police Station in Mumbai after the shooting. The police claimed that it was a premeditated attack born out of resentment built up over a long time. Pravin accused his brother of "ignoring and humiliating him, and not giving him his due". He also felt neglected and suffered from an inferiority complex because he was the poorer younger brother of a much famous elder brother. [23]
He was initially charged with attempt to murder under Sec. 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but was subsequently charged with murder under Sec. 302. [24]
References
- ^ "Bio-Data of Member of Rajya Sabha - Pramod Mahajan". National Informatics Centre. Retrieved April 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "What next for BJP?". BBC News South Asia. 2005. Retrieved April 24.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "He is BJP's tomorrow man". Daily News and Analysis. 2006. Retrieved April 24.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "'Our telecom services don't match world standards yet'". Rediff.com. 2002. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "National Telecom Policy, 1994". Telecom regulatory authority of India. 1994. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "How telecom wires got so tangled". The Hindu Business Line. 2003. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Jagmohan wags a warning finger at telecom companies". Rediff.com. 1999. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "A man slighted". Rediff.com. 1999. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "National Telecom Policy, 1999". Telecom regulatory authority of India. 1999. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "The telecom tangle". Hindu on the net. 1999. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Seeking accountability". Frontline on the net. 2006. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Arun Shourie hits back at Mahajan". Tribune India. 2002. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Shourie warns telecom players". Tribune India. 2003. Retrieved April 26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Shivani Bhatnagar Case". Rediff India. 2003. Retrieved May 3.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "A sordid affair". Frontline. 2002. Retrieved May 3.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "We'll have a 4-0 lead". Rediff.com. 2003. Retrieved May 1.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Hindutva not to be poll issue: BJP". Rediff.com. 2003. Retrieved May 1.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "The Assembly elections 2003 homepage". Rediff.com. 2003. Retrieved May 1.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Mahajan accepts blame for BJP debacle". Rediff.com. 2004. Retrieved May 1.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ The specialist who will treat Mahajan - Rediff News 23 April 2006
- ^ "Pramod Mahajan passes away". Rediff.com. 2006. Retrieved May 3.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ State funeral given to Pramod Mahajan
- ^ "Attack on Pramod premeditated: Police". NDTV. Retrieved April 24.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Chargesheet changed from Attempt to Murder to Murder