He has always loved to wear his heart on his sleeve. And love him or loathe him, this earthy, folksy Bihari is one politician without whom the history of the world’s largest democracy can scarcely ever be written. Lalu Prasad Yadav, the former chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar and a former railway minister of the country, is back in the headlines and how!
At a point of time when most political pundits had virtually written him off, Lalu rose like a phoenix from the ashes of irrelevance — first forming an electoral alliance with arch-rival and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and then powering his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), to top the tally with 80 seats in the recent assembly polls. Just after the elections were over, Lalu went public with his statement that irrespective of the number of seats his party bags, Nitish will continue to be the CM if the alliance wins a majority. With that one comment, Lalu not only neutralised all speculations about post-poll squabbling, but also secured the tag of ‘kingmaker’ for himself — even before the results were out. This sense of timing, this ability to turn any scenario into an advantage, has really been the hallmark of his political career spanning across nearly four decades. He knows how to bide his time.
His clever sales pitch, his rustic personality, his dalliance with half-truths, his sense of humour, his tangy one-liners and most of all, dollops of common sense, have helped script a fascinating tale of a public figure who has reigned over the hearts and minds of the electorate with the elan of a czar who loves to be ‘monarch of all he surveys’! Here’s a man who loves to play the catalyst — whether it is coalition politics or finding suitable grooms for his seven daughters. He even got his two sons elected as RJD legislators in the 2015 Bihar polls. His penchant for playing a doting father to his nine children is as phenomenal as his ability to have his fingers on the pulse of the public.
And scarcely has Indian politics come across a leader whose ability to weave fact and fiction into one seamless narrative of apparent innocence found such ready acceptance among even the most discerning of minds. His remarkable ability to convince a large number of people into buying his logic has always seen him punch well above his weight — from the dust bowl of a neighbourhood street in Chhapra district of Bihar to the corridors of power in New Delhi.
Born in Phulwaria, Bihar, on June 11, 1948, Lalu’s entry into national politics came about during those tumultuous years after the Emergency. In 1977, under the tutelage of his mentor and socialist leader of the Janata Party, Jai Prakash Narayan, Lalu was nominated as a candidate for the Lok Sabha election from Chhapra. He won and went from strength to strength, culminating in his election as Bihar CM in 1990 as leader of Janata Dal. Later on, he snapped ties with Janata Dal and launched RJD. Under his watch, Bihar made news quite often for all the wrong reasons. There was a sudden spurt in law-and-order issues all across the state. However, Lalu’s strong pitch for caste-based politics saw him reap the benefits at the hustings.
But things took an ugly turn in 1997, when his name was involved in the Rs4.5 billion fodder scam and the Central Bureau of Investigation issued an arrest warrant against him. An unfazed Lalu came up with the most blatant act of nepotism by nominating his wife Rabri Devi as the next CM.
Loss of face, credibility, trust ... but that’s Lalu — incorrigible and unputdownable.
Incorrigible and unputdownable
As the railways minister, between 2004 and 2009, Lalu became quite a rage not just in political circles, but even in the classrooms of premier management institutions the world over. Reason? Here was a man who had apparently turned a loss-making behemoth into a cash cow, earning a whopping Rs250 billion (Dh14.16 billion) in four years. As industry captains were at their wits’ end, trying to decode the formula for success, guest-speaker Lalu was busy explaining his ‘business model’ in chaste Hindi to a captive audience at Harvard and Wharton! It was only months after his exit from Rail Bhavan that the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office came up with a scathing criticism of the Lalu brand of accounting, practically accusing him of having cooked up the books on the basis of ‘statement of cash and investible surplus’ – a fudgy way of presenting a part of the expenses as revenue!
Loss of face, credibility, trust ... Agreed. But that’s Lalu, incorrigible and unputdownable.
He had been in political wilderness since losing his parliament membership in 2013 to a Supreme Court ruling aimed at keeping history-sheeters away from political positions. With RJD winning just four seats in the 2014 general election, the chips were down like never before. Then came the 2015 Bihar assembly polls. Sensing an existential crisis, Lalu joined hands with his sworn enemy, Nitish, and also took Congress on board. Poll arithmetic mattered more than principles and the results are showing.
Did anyone say opportunism? But then that’s Lalu … incorrigible and unputdownable.
You can follow Sanjib Kumar Das on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@moumiayush
