Some rambling thoughts on the Rahul Mahajan episode
V.Krishna Ananth
There was a legendary leader of the Communist movement from Kerala called M.N.Govinda Menon. A leading figure in the party and an MP, Govinda Menon went through a lot of trauma after his son ended up a drug addict. The little one was in school then and was found dead one day. The tragic episode provoked A.K.Gopalan, the tallest of the communist leaders in India to reflect on the trappings of New Delhi.
AKG warned his comrades against falling victim to the rootless and the cruel world that political personalities had to confront in the event they landed in New Delhi. His notes turned out to be a lesson to otherwise idealist members of the party. The events leading Rahul Mahajan in a police lock-up in New Delhi this week seem to remind, oce again, that things have not changed.
Well. Pramod Mahajan was not another M.N.Govinda Menon. And Rahul Mahajan is old enough to know what it means to take to drugs. Rahul had grown up to set up friends among the operators and his father too must have known everything about that. In other words, Rahul had gone about doing whatever he did in a conscious manner. Govinda Menon’s son was too young when he died due to drug abuse and in that sense was another innocent victim of the drug mafia.
The developments involving Rahul Mahajan, in that sense, raise a set of issues that need to be addressed from the realm of our political culture rather than reducing the whole episode to one of drug abuse and another incident of drug abuse or over-use. And in that sense, there is no way that the matter can be seen as an occasion to settle partisan political scores. It will also be important in this context to recall the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar, a young lady journalist.
Let us take the bare facts in this regard. Rahul Mahajan landed in a private hospital and was found to have taken drugs. It is another matter that this private hospital will not have admitted a poor man brought under similar circumstances. The usual refrain that it would be a medico-legal case and hence be taken to a government hospital would have been resorted to and such a patient would not have lived long. Rahul Mahajan, however, is not an ordinary citizen of this country and hence the law of the land can be bent in his case!
Interestingly, Rahul Mahajan was taken to this private hospital located almost 20 kilo metres away from his father’s official residence. He was not taken to any one of the Government hospitals such as the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, the AIIMS or the Safdarjung Hospital. It transpires now that Harish Sharma, yet another private secretary of the late Pramod Mahajan had called up the Appolo Hospital late that night and even had got himself admitted in the same private hospital the following day.
Well. This is not a stray case of a political honcho opting for a private and expensive hospital. Almost all our leaders are used to doing this. V.P.Singh, for instance, refuses to have his dialysis done anywhere else. He goes to the same hospital thrice a week for his routine dialysis.
The worst was to follow. The doctors attending to him agreed to give false declarations. That they did not find incidence of drug traces in his body. This, however, turned out to be false and the CFSL report nailed the lie. It is indeed a blessing that the media unearthed the truth. It remains to be seen as to whether the truth will stand in the courts! In any case, Rahul was unable to get the truth covered up at his stage.
Then comes the fact about how close Rahul was with his father’s secretary, Bibek Moitra and that in less than a couple of months after his father died, he was partying with his father’s private secretary and some ``unknown’’ men. And the one who has admitted to carrying the drug is from Srinagar. Well. L.K.Advani would have gone to town with his concerns for national security if it were to be the son of a leader from another political party!
The point is that the nexus between drugs and terror are well known and so is the politician-criminal-businessman nexus. The Rahul Mahajan episode has all these essentials of a concoction that is inimical to the democratic political structure. Let it be stated here that the Rahul Mahajan story is one that came out in the open because they did not stop where they must have. This is a story that can happen inside any one of the premises in Lutyens Delhi. And where do we begin to put a stop to all this?
V.Krishna Ananth
There was a legendary leader of the Communist movement from Kerala called M.N.Govinda Menon. A leading figure in the party and an MP, Govinda Menon went through a lot of trauma after his son ended up a drug addict. The little one was in school then and was found dead one day. The tragic episode provoked A.K.Gopalan, the tallest of the communist leaders in India to reflect on the trappings of New Delhi.
AKG warned his comrades against falling victim to the rootless and the cruel world that political personalities had to confront in the event they landed in New Delhi. His notes turned out to be a lesson to otherwise idealist members of the party. The events leading Rahul Mahajan in a police lock-up in New Delhi this week seem to remind, oce again, that things have not changed.
Well. Pramod Mahajan was not another M.N.Govinda Menon. And Rahul Mahajan is old enough to know what it means to take to drugs. Rahul had grown up to set up friends among the operators and his father too must have known everything about that. In other words, Rahul had gone about doing whatever he did in a conscious manner. Govinda Menon’s son was too young when he died due to drug abuse and in that sense was another innocent victim of the drug mafia.
The developments involving Rahul Mahajan, in that sense, raise a set of issues that need to be addressed from the realm of our political culture rather than reducing the whole episode to one of drug abuse and another incident of drug abuse or over-use. And in that sense, there is no way that the matter can be seen as an occasion to settle partisan political scores. It will also be important in this context to recall the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar, a young lady journalist.
Let us take the bare facts in this regard. Rahul Mahajan landed in a private hospital and was found to have taken drugs. It is another matter that this private hospital will not have admitted a poor man brought under similar circumstances. The usual refrain that it would be a medico-legal case and hence be taken to a government hospital would have been resorted to and such a patient would not have lived long. Rahul Mahajan, however, is not an ordinary citizen of this country and hence the law of the land can be bent in his case!
Interestingly, Rahul Mahajan was taken to this private hospital located almost 20 kilo metres away from his father’s official residence. He was not taken to any one of the Government hospitals such as the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, the AIIMS or the Safdarjung Hospital. It transpires now that Harish Sharma, yet another private secretary of the late Pramod Mahajan had called up the Appolo Hospital late that night and even had got himself admitted in the same private hospital the following day.
Well. This is not a stray case of a political honcho opting for a private and expensive hospital. Almost all our leaders are used to doing this. V.P.Singh, for instance, refuses to have his dialysis done anywhere else. He goes to the same hospital thrice a week for his routine dialysis.
The worst was to follow. The doctors attending to him agreed to give false declarations. That they did not find incidence of drug traces in his body. This, however, turned out to be false and the CFSL report nailed the lie. It is indeed a blessing that the media unearthed the truth. It remains to be seen as to whether the truth will stand in the courts! In any case, Rahul was unable to get the truth covered up at his stage.
Then comes the fact about how close Rahul was with his father’s secretary, Bibek Moitra and that in less than a couple of months after his father died, he was partying with his father’s private secretary and some ``unknown’’ men. And the one who has admitted to carrying the drug is from Srinagar. Well. L.K.Advani would have gone to town with his concerns for national security if it were to be the son of a leader from another political party!
The point is that the nexus between drugs and terror are well known and so is the politician-criminal-businessman nexus. The Rahul Mahajan episode has all these essentials of a concoction that is inimical to the democratic political structure. Let it be stated here that the Rahul Mahajan story is one that came out in the open because they did not stop where they must have. This is a story that can happen inside any one of the premises in Lutyens Delhi. And where do we begin to put a stop to all this?
posted by Krishna Ananth at
3:51 AM
3 Comments:
This entire issue of drugs has haunted me for ages now...i have tried some of the milder ones and I know its affects and addictions...I know friends who have had to go to england and the US of A for rehabilitation. Eradication is a difficult issue..because i feel drugs cross all boundaries of caste and class...for the upper classes, drugs are a symbol. A symbol to show they can afford it and endure it. drugs - directly proportional - popluarity among peers or something equally stupid. Almost every actor in america and now in India is involved...the psychological reasons start it, the physical one takes over soon enough. For lower classes, drugs are a means of escape from reality..students believe it helps them concentrate..in my college hostel, over 20 lakhs worth drugs can be found on any given day...
drugs decrease natural resistance..resistance to authority, to injustice and cruelty. Drug abusers are under the inmpression that the mere act of using and abusing drugs is a form of challenge or dissent...such a tragedy...KILLING NATURAL RESISTANCE SIGH. frankly i feel governments across the world can control this issue with ease...but why...when people are runining themselves, and posing a lesser threat to the govt. ... ehhehehehehe why should the govt cut-off the best weapon..the one under everyones nose...
Anonymous....thank you
and will be nice if you can come out and do your bit against addiction... particularly being someone who has managed to get out of the habit...
its a distraction according to me for the peole taking it, both rich and poor and for the authorities who prented to be really concerned about drug consumption... its like an unproductive and unhealthy involvement with something that is very preoccupying.
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