These were the faint and aggrieved words that slipped from Pramod Mahajan’s lips when brother-in-law Gopinath Munde held him in his arms.
Prashant Hamine & Shubhangi Khapre
MUMBAI: “Mee kai paap kela ahe? (What sin have I committed to deserve this?)”
These were the faint and aggrieved words that slipped from Pramod Mahajan’s lips when brother-in-law Gopinath Munde held him in his arms minutes after three bullets tore into Mahajan’s body.
Munde says that although Mahajan was besieged by unspeakable pain, he retained remarkable mental alertness. In fact, Mahajan reminded Munde to inform the doctors that he was diabetic.
Mahajan was stunned by what had happened. He had never fussed about security, even while campaigning for assembly elections in insurgency-infested Assam. His credo — which sounds gloomily prophetic now — was: “I don’t think there is any threat from outside.”
Thirty-six hours after the incident, family members are gradually coming to terms with the situation. Munde and other relations managed to eat something on Sunday afternoon, their first meal since the Saturday shootout.
It is a weekend that Munde wishes never began. He had barely browsed through the morning newspapers and was waiting for breakfast. At around 8:10am he heard a knock on his door.
It was the Mahajan family’s domestic servant Mangesh. In a voice quivering with panic, he told Munde what had happened. Munde, who was wearing a lungi and kurta, ran barefoot up the stairs to Mahajan’s 15th floor flat.
At the hospital, Munde took charge asking his personal secretary to summon party workers to the hospital. Mahajan and Munde’s personal secretary Bibek Maitra had reached Purna Apartments by then. He saw Pravin Mahajan walking down the staircase, but nothing about his demeanour indicated that he had just committed a murderous assault.
Munde’s world had come to a standstill. He rushed Mahajan to the operation theatre. Till 3:00pm on Saturday, he was pacing up and down the hospital corridors trying to think of ways to alleviate the shock of his family.
Munde made a brief appearance at the hospital lawns around 4pm when he was seen with former BJP president LK Advani. Early next morning, at around 12:30am, Munde stepped up to Mahajan’s bed and said, “Pramod, Pramod, can you hear me?” All he got in response was a weak quiver of the eyelids.
Three hours later, Mahajan beckoned Munde with his eyes but could only whisper “Gopinath, Gopinath” over and over.
For the grief-stricken family, however, this represented a moment of hope. The bleeding of the liver had ceased. BJP leaders and close family members, assailed by anguish but also emboldened by hope, decided to celebrate over a cup of tea on the hospital lawns.
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