RIP

With the death of high-profile BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan, the party's political template has been exposed to further mutation of a harmful type. Starting with the Lok Sabha poll defeat in 2004 to Advani's tryst with Jinnah's djinn in Pakistan in 2005 and now Pramod Mahajan's untimely demise, the saffron party's DNA has mutated for the worse. Among the second generation leaders, there's no one who can claim to have a national face. Mahajan was getting there but fate willed otherwise. Despite his showbiz persona, he was the lynchpin of the big two of the party. Be it fund raising or organising an event, he was successful in grabbing the nation's attention. His aggressive but at the same time polite attitude had won him many friends in the media and he used the Press to the maximum benefit. Mahajan was one person who had been instrumental in changing the BJP's image from being a party of small traders to a party aligning with big media houses. It was Mahajan who stuck to the party ideology of Hindutva but simultaneously showed to the world that Hindutva and computer science can go hand in hand. His understanding of the grassroot politics was somehow exposed during the LS poll of 2004 when his India Shining blitzkrieg came crashing down resulting in BJP's defeat. Despite the loss, Mahajan continued to be Atal's Man Friday. May his soul rest in peace.