More than meets the eye

High-profile families often find themselves as the butt of attention compounded by personal tragedies. Such public faces of marvel expose themselves as hideous undercuts in real life. In certain cases, of course, people are helpless by circumstances.

Some tragedies have resulted from the puerile behaviour of spoilt brats. Often they are born with a golden spoon in their mouths. They are always spoon-fed and so they like to be spoon-fed. Otherwise, they will go off hook.

The latest in this category is Rahul Mahajan, son of the late all-powerful Pramod Mahajan of the BJP. Pramod Mahajan was shot dead by his younger brother Praveen Mahajan, who is counting his days in the jail.

Rahul Mahajan was to have carried the ashes of his father to be interred in the Brahmaputra on the Asom side. The previous night he, Pramod Mahajan’s secretary, Bibek Moitra, and other carousers were having a hell of a time in the official bungalow that was allotted to Pramod Mahajan in Delhi, the same bungalow that was occupied by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee before his elevation as the PM.

Moitra died of the drinking drama. In the autopsy, traces of poison have been found. Rahul Mahajan was lucky, though it was a close call from the drink. The private hospital medical team has been providing him with help to escape damnation.

The callous revelers were snorting some white powder wrapped in
Rs 500 currency notes, the night before Pramod Mahajan’s ashes were being immersed.

Well, that is their business, though one can never condone such nefarious activities.

Think about this. Rahul Mahajan was being elevated to some posts in the BJP or its feeder organisations! The man who was one among the party-hoppers in Mumbai night clubs and elsewhere could never have dreamt of “serving the people” come what may. Apparently, interested persons were pulling the strings to induct Rahul Mahajan into position so that some of the suspect-associates of Pramod Mahajan could commute the corridors of power.

Personal tragedies have occurred to many other leaders. Natwar Singh’s daughter Ritu Singh and daughter-in-law Natasha Singh had committed suicide. Now Natwar and his son Jagat Singh are in the boiling cauldron of the UN’s Volcker Committee Report indicting several persons and institutions of having spirited away money from Iraq’s oil-for-food scheme. Natwar has already paid the price by quitting the powerful post of Minister for External Affairs.

What the people want is a proper unraveling of the mysteries surrounding many of the tragedies.

There must be something more-than-meets-the-eye in what is perceived as Pramod Mahajan’s family affair.

The assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have not been properly accounted for in their finality. Sanjay Gandhi’s plane-crash was not properly investigated.

Governments from time to time speak with bravado of exposing the mysteries and the guilty being brought to book, but often the investigations get halted half way and the mysteries remain myths.

We are not living in autocratic anticipations where anything can be cooked up. Political expediency of suppression and distortion should not cloud the silver lining of the rainbow of democracy.