By Parmanand Pandey
Lalu Prasad Yadav, when he was the Chief Minister of Bihar used to brag, ‘Jab tak hai somese me aaloo, tab tak rahega Bihar me Lalu (So long the Samosas are made of potatoes, Bihar will be ruled by Lalu). He had many times said that he would rule Bihar for at least twenty five years. When he shifted from Bihar to Delhi after getting his wife saddled as the Chief Minister of the State he boasted number of times inside and outside Parliament that one day he would certainly become the Prime Minster of India.
One may recollect that when Lalu was returned to power in Bihar for the third consecutive time he had pooh-poohed the idea of development in the State. He even ridiculed the theory of modernisation, computerisation and developmental activities of Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh who had got drubbings at the assembly elections by saying that if the development had been the criterion of popularity in the people, then Naidu should not have got battered. This was his way of expressing contempt for the development.
Anybody, who talked of making Bihar a vibrant and developed state, was made the butt of jukes by Lalu. He had said many times that only illiterates and poor people vote for him; therefore, there was no need for education and alleviation of poverty from the state. Thus he actively and deliberately perpetuated the poverty and deprivation in Bihar. So much so; he used to gleefully enjoy the humiliation of Biharis, who stepped out their State to earn their livelihood in other states.
A person, who considered himself the product of the movement got himself immersed, head over shoulder, in corruption of every conceivable type, be it fodder scam or asphalt scam or misappropriation of flood relief fund. He sucked Bihar white for his insatiable greed of accumulating wealth. He ran the state of Bihar as his fiefdom without any sense of shame or guilt. Claiming himself to be a socialist he indulged in terrible casteism and rank opportunism in most brazen and arrogant style. He was tried in the court of law in some cases and was even sent to jail more than once but the thick skinned Lalu, as he is, boasted as if the jail going in corruption cases was a badge of honour. While going to jail; the way he handed over the baton of Chief Ministership to his unlettered house wife, Rabri Devi, amounted to heaping insult on the people of the State in particular and the democratic polity of the country in general. In any other democratic country, he would have been languishing in jail and faced the wrath of the public but he, with the support of spineless leaders like Inder Kumar Gujral, whose ascendancy to the post of the Prime Minister ship of India was slur on the country, got his wife sworn in as the Chief Minister of the second largest state of the country. It was the darkest period of the country that a self seeker like Gujral could rise to the level of the Prime Minister of the country without any qualification, struggle or ideology. He, verily, brought disrepute to the exalted post of the Prime Minister ship. It is said, that it was Gujral who suggested Lalu to install his wife as the Chief Minster of Bihar. What a shame!
Now Lalu Prasad Yadav’s bluff and bravado has been exposed in the last Parliamentary elections. The People of Bihar have rejected him lock stock and barrel. Any attempt by him or his corrupt supporters to get him awarded with a ministerial berth at the centre would again be an insult to the people of Bihar. This is the time his corrupt deeds, irregularities in Bihar as well as in the Railway Ministry should be thoroughly enquired into and made public. And he must be tried in fair and objective manner by the court of law. If he is found guilty he should get stern punishment. This will help restore the people’s faith in democracy and neck-deep corrupt politicians like him would, undoubtedly, be deterred from plundering the public money and treat the power as their fiefs. A good lesson indeed!