‘Pramod, get out of the ICU. Let’s go home’

MUMBAI: Gopinath Munde, former deputy CM of Maharashtra, looks a shadow of his former self these days. He spends most of his time waiting in a narrow corridor, lined with chairs, outside the ICU where his long-time friend, leader, and brother-in-law Pramod Mahajan lies grievously wounded.

“I’ve known Pramod since we were 16 years old,” a visibly shaken Munde told me, in his first interview to the press since Mahajan was shot last Saturday. “We grew up together, went to the same college; people say I’m his relative and party member. But more than that he is my friend — my real friend.”

I am on the third floor of Hinduja Hospital, in the inner sanctum, where I am told no journalist has been allowed and where VVIPs like Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, and Bal Thackeray have enquired about the BJP leader in hushed tones.

“Only Vajpayee and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat have been allowed to go beyond this door into the ICU,” says Pratap Ashar, treasurer of the state BJP and the man generally in charge of Mahajan’s affairs.

“The family sits on the fifteenth floor; only Munde Sahib and Rahul receive VVIP visitors here. We are conscious of not disturbing the sanctity of other patients.”

Indeed, except for the gaggle of media persons and TV crew downstairs, and the presence of star visitors like Raj Babbar, who sits huddled with Munde, there is little evidence that there is a celebrity patient here.

There is the usual hospital drone of bleary-eyed relatives clutching plastic bags stuffed with medical reports and the usual clang of bed pans and steel trolleys. Nameless crowds ebb and flow around doctors, unmindful of the political theatre that is unfolding. Indeed, the situation is grim, and Munde’s unself-conscious utterance “But he should survive!” betrays the family’s anxiety.

But today, cautiously, with trepidation, his closest aides tell me there might be signs of improvement. “The dosage for regulating his blood pressure has been reduced, which is a good sign,” says Vivek Maitra, who has been Mahajan’s secretary for the last 16 years.  

“He is not out of danger, but there are signs that he might improve once his blood pressure, his circulation and respiration normalise.”

“My father’s a fighter,” says Rahul, Mahajan’s ebullient commercial pilot son, “and unlike what the media has been saying, I haven’t cried so far. I am the strong son of a strong father!”

What would he like to do if his dad recovers and is released? “Go on a family vacation immediately,” he says without pause. “On a cruise. Or to Goa.”

“I would like to take him home and watch him play with his grandson,” says an emotional Munde. “That’s when he is happiest.”

And what would he like to say to his friend if he could at this moment?

“I would like to say: Pramod, get out of the ICU and let’s go home,” says Munde, unable to control the tremor in his voice.