Mahajan, a fading memory


 The BJP's Big Two perhaps forgot Pramod Mahajan's second death anniversary this week. A function to mark Pramod's death in New Delhi's VP House was attended by a motley crowd of Pramod supporters, friends and followers but both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were conspicuous by their absence.

 Even Pramod’s children, Poonam and Rahul, and daughter-in-law Shweta, who always said she was raised like a daughter by him, were among the absentees. Not even brother-in-law Gopinath Munde was able to make it to the function. Wife Rekha, shepherded by the friends of Pramod, was the only family member who was present. "I missed the chance to be in
 politics," said Rekha Mahajan rather ruefully. Rekha's candid remark come at the time when her brother Munde has been insisting that either Rekha  or her daughter Poonam Mahajan be given a berth in Parliament by the BJP.  Munde had gone to the extent of resigning from all party posts to push for his demand but retracted following an informal understanding on the issue by the BJP leadership.

 Apart from the close band of associates namely Sudhanshu Mittal,Harish Sharma, Vijay Goel and Vijay Jolly, politicians Amar Singh,Madan Lal Khurana, Jual Oram, Menaka Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Najma Heptullah, C P Thakur, Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Prakash Javadekar were present at Pramod memorial function.

 Meanwhile those who are part of Pramod Mahajan Foundation had another reason to be upset. Mahajan loyalists wonder why and how a foreign dignitary who was supposed to have attended a seminar in memory of Mahajan was "discouraged" from doing so at the last moment. Whodunit?


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 Missing Cricket

 The DLF-IPL series is having a massive impact on our parliamentarians and it has little to do with the cheer leaders. The senior union minister reportedly tailored his parliamentary schedule in such a fashion that he would be in Delhi's Feroze Shah Kotla in time. It caused heart burn among his colleagues.