Letter from Lahore: Lalu does not like the media any more

Some people never change. Lalu Prasad Yadav is certainly one of them.

Voted out of power in Bihar in the recent election, you would expect the Rashtriya Janata Dal boss to lie low for a while, nurse his electoral wounds, and, above all, do an honest introspection so that he can re-build and re-group his forces for the battles ahead.

But the incorrigible Lalu seems to have learnt no lessons from his electoral drubbing.

Back in the capital for the parliamentary session, the Railway Minister held court the other day in the Central Hall of Parliament surrounded by his party MPs, including the mafia don, Shahbuddin, who lapped up his every word as if these were pearls of distilled wisdom.

Irked by a polite question about the causes of his rejection by the people after 15 years of uninterrupted power, Lalu launched a broadside against the media, holding it responsible for the downturn in his fortunes.

He ranted against the press which called him a "fodder thief" and took umbrage at newspapers which heralded the imposition of central rule in the State by such headlines as "Criminal Raj ends in Bihar after 15 years" or "Lalu family rule ends in Bihar at long last."

In fact, he named a particular Hindi daily and declared that he would sue it for defaming him.

Wasn't he being harsh on the media while the real fault lay with the State Government which, by all accounts, had done precious little to better the lot of the people?

"No," Lalu thundered, "it was the image you people have foisted on me and my party which did great mischief."

As for his strategy to reclaim power, well, his bete noire, Ramvilas Paswan has to either support his party's claim to form the next government in the next couple of months or has to be shown the door by the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre.

If only things could be as simple as Lalu seems to make them, he would still be ruling the roost in Bihar.

Union Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary can hold her own against any member of Lalu Yadav's criminal brigade in parliament in a verbal joust.

The other day she phoned a senior journalist, who had written about her Black Labelgate in his Telugu newspaper, to give him a mouthful.

Poor fellow, a God-fearing Tamil who bears his brahmanical lineage on his forehead, did not know how to respond to the filth that came forth from the other end.

Typically, she wondered why the journalist had made such a fuss if the Johnny Walker Black Label had disappeared from the India Tourism Development Corporation shops and asked if he wanted a crate of it sent across.

When told that he was a confirmed teetotaller who had not touched anything stronger than a glass of lime juice, the minister let fly with added vigour against the journalist community as a whole saying that she was fully aware how it was willing to sell itself for a "bottle of tharra [cheap liquor]".

Nonplussed by the tirade, the journalist is said to have told Choudhary to take her complaint to his editors….

The writer is a well-known columnist.