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Lotus stemmed
Some decades ago, The Advertising Association of America ran an advertisement showing a shot of Robert Kennedy, assassinated.
Some decades ago, The Advertising Association of America ran an advertisement showing a shot of Robert Kennedy, assassinated. The caption, evidently alluding to clients, read: ‘They always shot down our best ideas.’ Pramod Mahajan, good, bad or ugly, was inarguably one of our finest ideas. I have always believed that the other great idea that we lost was Madhavrao Scindia.
For people from my generation, gentlemen like Scindia and Mahajan represented a strange kind of hope. They were part of the system, yet distinctly apart from it. They were both lotuses that grew in dirty ponds. They both had roots and wings.
Mahajan also represented an aggression that was distinctly missing in his party. He was the bridge between ideology and technology. Between the hardline and the hard disk. And that was important given the direction this country is taking today. Globally, it is India’s commerce today that is dictating India’s political standing. Mahajan would have been a master manipulator in this charming circumstance. He was the Spassky of the situation. And like Spassky he illustrated the power of the passed pawn when it came to the last party elections. After all, even grandmasters know when to castle early.
What would have been the future of Pramod Mahajan? The jury is out on that.
But one thing is certain that in the politics of coalition, Mahajan would have been great glue. Your enemies seldom weep for you. Would he have led the BJP? Undeniably. In my absolute political naiveté, I got the sense that his being mandated for most state elections was the party’s way to pave the way for his pan-India acceptance.
Unfortunately, no one in ‘Generation Next’ has the swagger that can straddle the country. Does the BJP now have a plan in place? Tragically, the BJP has always had people in place. Seldom a plan. Indeed, to some, the demise of Mahajan will give birth to a whole new set of aspirations. But none will fructify.
In my perspective, something altogether different may well emerge. The old guard will come back even more forcefully. With his rath yatra, Advani’s message is amply clear: he never ever said goodbye. He just said, “See you again.” And therein lies the irreconcilable irony of Mahajan’s loss. The man who would have taken a party forward were he alive, will take a party back by his death.
Norman Cousins once said, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” On May 3, hope died inside a nation while it lived.
