How did Pramod Mahajan amass so much wealth?

A powerful elder brother murderously gunned down by the younger brother one early morning. The son of the deceased caught snorting cocaine from Rs 500 notes with the secretary of the deceased, who later dies of an overdose. A hurried marriage for the son of the deceased with a childhood sweetheart. A hurried arangetram into the youth wing of a party which decries “dynastic politics” for the daughter of the deceased. Wifebeating charges against the son of the deceased followed by the filing for divorce of the new couple. A surprisingly quick conviction for the killer-brother.

It is easy to tch-tch-tch about India’s most dysfunctional political family, and shed a tear or ten for a mother whose world turned upside down in the space of a few weeks. But a letter-writer in today’s Deccan Herald cuts to the chase:

“The recent front page coverage of Rahul Mahajan’s separation from his wife again reinforces the view that our media creates hype and sells hype in their business interest. Mahajan is a non-entity who neither holds any important position in the BJP nor is a celebrity by any yardstick to command such coverage.

“The real point is how the late Pramod Mahajan, a small-time teacher and a sangh parcharak, amassed such huge wealth which allowed his prodigal son to have this sort of life style. This was never hammered by our press.”

Bhartendu Sood
Bangalore

Also read: Is Pramod Mahajan a Rs 2,000 crore man?

Ramachandra Guha: How come nobody called Mahajan a fixer?