Pramod Mahajan

Infobox_Indian_politician
name = Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan
caption = Pramod Mahajan
birth_date =birth date|1949|10|30|mf=y
birth_place =Mehbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh
residence =Mumbai
death_date =death date and age|2006|5|3|1949|10|30|mf=y
death_place =Mumbai
office = Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
constituency =
salary =
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party =BJP
religion =
spouse = Smt. Rekha Pramod Mahajan
children = One son (Rahul Mahajan) and one daughter (Poonam)
website =
footnotes =
date = 2006-05-05
source = http://rajyasabha.nic.in/kiosk/whoswho/alpha_m1.htm

Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan (प्रमोद व्यंकटेश महाजन in Devanagari) (30 October, 1949 – 3 May, 2006) [cite web
url = http://rajyasabha.nic.in/kiosk/whoswho/alpha_m1.htm
title = Mahajan, Shri Pramod. Biographical sketch
publisher = Rajya Sabha
accessdate = 2006-09-02] was a prominent Indian politician. He was one of the most powerful second generation leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, at the time of his death, was locked in a power struggle over who would 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. [cite news
last = Biswas
first = Soutik
coauthors =
title = What next for the BJP?
language = English
publisher = BBC News
date = 30 December 2005
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4569054.stm
accessdate = 2005-09-02 ]

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 contested only 2 Loksabha elections from Mumbai - North East constituency.He won in 1996 but lost in 1998. He was the brain behind the BJP campaign in 2004 elections and he accepted the responsibility of not getting the expected number of seats in that election.

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 13 days later. His brother was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment by the court in 2007.

Early life

Mahajan was born to Venkatesh Devidas Mahajan and Prabhavati Venkatesh Mahajan in Mehbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India in a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family. The Mahajan family had migrated from their home in Mahajan gully in Osmanabad to Ambajogai 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. [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title =He is BJP's tomorrow man
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Daily News and Analysis
date = April 23, 2006
url = http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1025614
accessdate = 2006-09-02 ]

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 Mahajan. 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 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 until 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.

tate 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 is married to his sister Pradnya). Mahajan was responsible for his party's alliance with the Shiv Sena. [cite news
last = Firdaus
first = Ashraf
coauthors =
title = How Mahajan kept the BJP-Sena together
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Rediff
date = May 4, 2006
url = http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/may/04mahajan.htm
accessdate = 2006-09-07 ] 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's fortunes have 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 served on the Rajya Sabha in 1986-87, 1992-96, 1998-99 and for the last time 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 was first appointed as advisor to the Prime Minister. He resigned from that post and stood for Rajya Sabha elections in July 1998. He won and 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 Water Resources a month later in November and took charge of Information Technology (in addition to Parliamentary Affairs).

In 2001, he was appointed [cite web
year = 2002
url = http://www.rediff.com/money/2002/sep/02inter.htm
title = 'Our telecom services don't match world standards yet'
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] to the Communications ministry under controversial circumstances. The earlier telecom policy of the government, formulated in 1994, [cite web
year = 1994
url = http://www.trai.gov.in/ntp1994.htm.htm
title = National Telecom Policy, 1994
publisher = Telecom regulatory authority of India
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] had allowed private participation in cellular telephony after open bidding, on payment of a license fee determined through the bidding. However, after winning the contracts the telecom companies found themselves unable to pay the fixed license fees, supposedly because the victors fell victim to the Winner's curse. [cite web
year = 2003
url = http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/11/11/stories/2003111100030800.htm
title = How telecom wires got so tangled
publisher = The Hindu Business Line
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] The then Minister for Communications, Jagmohan attempted tough action [cite web
year = 1999
url = http://www.rediff.com/computer/1999/jan/18dues.htm
title = Jagmohan wags a warning finger at telecom companies
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] against the defaulting companies, but was sacked. [cite web
year = 1999
url = http://www.rediff.com/computer/1999/jun/09sack.htm
title = A man slighted
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] 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. [cite web
year = 1999
url = http://www.trai.gov.in/npt1999.htm
title = National Telecom Policy, 1999
publisher = Telecom regulatory authority of India
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] The policy replaced fixed license fees with a revenue sharing agreement, a move that was widely criticized [cite web
year = 1999
url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1617/16170060.htm
title = The telecom tangle
publisher = Hindu on the net
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] 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. He was also involved in a dispute [cite web
year = 2002
url = http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020605/nation.htm#3
title = Arun Shourie hits back at Mahajan
publisher = Tribune India
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] with the then Disinvestment minister Arun Shourie over the privatization of VSNL. Shourie succeeded him to the Communications portfolio [cite web
year = 2003
url = http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030131/main2.htm
title = Shourie warns telecom players
publisher = Tribune India
accessdate = April 26
accessyear = 2006] . 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 had just changed positions from chariot rider to charioteer Fact|date=February 2007.

2003 and 2004 elections

Assembly elections were held in four Indian states in December 2003 - Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Mahajan was put in charge of Rajasthan. [cite web
year = 2003
url = http://in.rediff.com/news/2003/jul/18bjp1.htm
title = We'll have a 4-0 lead
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = May 1
accessyear = 2006] The BJP consciously chose to play down the "Hindutva" platform. [cite web
year = 2003
url = http://www.rediff.com/election/2003/nov/29inter1.htm
title = Hindutva not to be poll issue: BJP
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = May 1
accessyear = 2006] Nonetheless, the elections turned out to be a resounding victory for the BJP, which won in three of the four states [cite web
year = 2003
url = http://in.rediff.com/election/poll03.htm
title = The Assembly elections 2003 homepage
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = May 1
accessyear = 2006] . 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. [cite web
year = 2004
url = http://www.rediff.com/election/2004/may/13pramod.htm
title = Mahajan accepts blame for BJP debacle
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = May 1
accessyear = 2006]

Death

On the morning of 22 April 2006, Mahajan's estranged younger brother, Pravin shot him 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 [ [http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/23rela.htm The specialist who will treat Mahajan] - Rediff News 23 April 2006] . After struggling for his life for 13 days, Mahajan suffered from a cardiac arrest and died on 3 May 2006 at 4:10 pm IST. [cite web
url = http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/03mahajan1.htm.
year = 2006
title = Pramod Mahajan passes away
publisher = Rediff.com
accessdate = May 3
accessyear = 2006] He was given a state funeral [ [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1516004.cms State funeral given to Pramod Mahajan] ] at the Shivaji Park crematorium in Dadar, Mumbai on May 4, 2006.

Pravin 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. [cite web
url = http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=mahajanshot&slug=Attack+on+Pramod+premeditated%3A+Police&id=19249&callid=0&category=National
title = Attack on Pramod premeditated: Police
publisher = NDTV
accessdate = April 24
accessyear = 2006 ] Pravin was charged with murder under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) [ [http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=382184 Chargesheet changed from Attempt to Murder to Murder] ] . However, Pravin told the court that he had not shot bullets at his brother. On 18 December 2007, Pravin was sentenced to life imprisonment [cite web |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Pravin_gets_life_term_for_killing_Pramod_Mahajan/articleshow/2631387.cms | title=Pravin gets life term for killing Pramod Mahajan |publisher = Indiatimes.com |accessdate = December 19 |accessyear = 2007] .

References