Back to the Future: The Pinball

Lalu Prasad Yadav
File:Laluprasadyadav.jpg Lalu Prasad at a political rally in January 2007, at Kesariya, Bihar, India.
Minister of Railways Government of India MP-Lok Sabha
Constituency	Chapra
Personal details
Born	(1947-06-11) 11 June 1947 Gopalganj, Bihar
Political party	RJD
Spouse	Rabri Devi
Children	2 sons and 7 daughters
Residence	Patna
As of September 25, 2006 Source: [1]

Lalu Prasad Yadav, sometimes spelt as Laloo Prasad or Lalloo Prasad, (Devanāgarī: लालू प्रसाद यादव) Lālu Prasād (born June 11, 1947 Goplaganj, Bihar) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar. He is currently the Minister of Railways in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

He is currently a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha from the Chhapra constituency. He is known for his charismatic leadership and mass appeal among some of the backward castes and religious minorities, caste-based politics, as well as for the many corruption cases against him during his political tenure.

Earlier, Lalu served as Chief Minister of Bihar from 1990-1997, when he was forced to resign following escalating corruption charges in the Fodder scam.

Early life

Lalu Prasad Yadav was born poor May 2008}}. in family of farmers in Phulwaria, Gopalganj district, Bihar to Kundan Rai and Marachhiya Devi.

On June 1, 1973 he married Rabri Devi. The two have two sons and seven daughters. According to him, his large family is a protest against the forced sterilization during the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77) declared by Indira Gandhi.

The eldest daughter is Misa Bharati, named after the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, the law which provided the police with an independent authority to arrest and detain persons without the permission of a court. He is naturalist in his religious beliefs..

Political career

Lalu's first political step was his active involvement in the elections of the Patna University Students' union. He led the student movement inspired by Jai Prakash Narayan in the 1970s.Theformer Chief Minister of Bihar and the then President of Bihar State Janata Party,seniorleader Satyendra Narayan Sinha(affectionately called "Chhote Saheb" ) placed him as a candidate for the Lok Sabha and campaigned for him.He was subsequently elected as a member of 6th Lok Sabha on a Janata Party ticket at only 29 years of age, becoming one of the youngest members of the Indian Parliament then.

In a span of 10 years, he became a formidable force in Bihar State Politics. During the Indian general elections in 1989 and state assembly elections, he successfully led the National Front coalition in Bihar. It was, therefore, no surprise that he was elected the Chief Minister leaving behind Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from Janata Party when the Party came to power in the 1990 Assembly elections. The World Bank lauded his party for its work in the 1990s on the economic front.

According to the BBC, the police unearthed a Fodder Scam in 1996 worth Rs 950 crore (US$ 267 Million) in Bihar (dating back to the previous Congress Government) which allegedly involved Lalu and the State's leading bureaucrats and politicians, albeit the probe itself was ordered by him. To some people it is seen as counter by opposition to stop his unprecedented political growth. The fodder scam forced Mr. Yadav to resign from the office of Chief Minister and he elected his wife, Rabri Devi, as his successor.

He formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 1997, after breaking away from the Janata Dal. According to Limca Book of Records, he is the longest serving president of an Indian Political Party.

But despite ruling the State of Bihar for 15 years, in November 2005 elections, his party, the RJD could win just 54 seats, which put his party in third place, after the Janata Dal United(JDU) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).

Railway minister

Prasad was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Chhapra and Madhepura seats of Bihar. He was named as the railway minister in the UPA Government. Later, he gave up the Madhepura seat.

He made the following controversial achievements during his ongoing stint as the Union Railway Minister:

• He banned plastic cups to serve tea at railway stations and ordered that they be replaced by kulhads (earthen cups). He claimed that the measure would generate more employment in rural areas. Later, he also said that he had plans to introduce buttermilk and khadi.

• In June 2004, he announced that he would get on the railway himself to inspect its problems and went on to board the Patna railway station at midnight.

Tenure as Minister

When Yadav took over, the Indian Railways was a loss-making organization. In the 4 years under his leadership, a cumulative total profit of Rs. 70, 000 crore (US$ 17.5 billion dollars) has been reported. Ironically, under the previous government, The Rakesh Mohan Committee (headed by Rakesh Mohan, secretary, department of economic affairs) had termed The Railways a 'white elephant' and predicted it would suffer a Rs 61,000 crore (US$15.4 billion dollars) loss possibly ending in bankruptcy by 2015. The only solution seemed to be privatization.

Lalu Prasad Yadav is now credited with engineering the financial turnaround of Indian Railways, that was on the verge of bankruptcy before his appointment to the office. He left passenger fares untouched and found several other profitable sources of revenue for the Railways. He also improved on his first year's performance by stating a profit of 14,000 crores with decreased freight and unchanged passenger fares in 2006. Then, in the 2007 budget, he increased the profit level to 20,000 crores with the introduction of cushion seats in all unreserved compartments.In 2008, profits were 25000 crore (equals $ 6.25 billion @ $1~Rs.40)

Speech of Shri Lalu Prasad, introducing the Railway Budget 2008-2009 On 26th February 2008 : "Speaker Sir, I present the Railway Budget for the year 2008-09 with a sense of deep pride and satisfaction. Each year we have progressively raised the bar based on our own successes. The cash surplus of the Railways rose steadily from Rs 9000 cr in 2005 to Rs 14000 cr in 2006 to Rs 20000 cr in 2007. The august House would be happy to know that in 2007-08, we will create history once again by turning in a cash surplus before Dividend of Rs. 25000 cr. Our operating ratio has also improved to 76%. Indian Railways is a Government Department. However, we take pride in the fact that our achievement, on the benchmark of net surplus before Dividend, makes us better than most of the Fortune 500 companies in the world..." [2]

his Budget-Speech-06-07: "Sir, .... Tenth Plan targets of 624 mt loading and 396 billion tonne kilometers have been surpassed one year in advance. Sir, I not only hope but firmly believe that we would surpass the Tenth Five Year Plan's incremental target of 63 billion tkm for freight business by over 200%".

Well-known schools of management were interested in his leadership in managing the turnaround (with more or less the same IAS officers & the same workforce who worked under the previous minister). He addressed over a hundred students from Harvard, Wharton and others in Hindi. He has received invitations from 8 Ivy League schools The turnaround of the Indian Railways is now being studied by the students of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Prof G. Raghuram, a faculty member, IIM-A, has already conducted a detailed study on the Railways turnaround.

In August 2008, CNN-IBN alleged that Lalu Prasad had misused his position as the Union Railway Minister to help his relatives acquire land.

Lalu in popular culture

Many books have been written in praise of Lalu by local writers including Lalu Chalisa and Lalu Hala (especially by fellow Yadavs). There are entertainers who mimic Lalu as a profession. According to a media report, many local barbers and saloons are earning money by offering what they call the `Lalu-style hair cut`. A barber of Hajipur was quoted saying,"The style is a craze among the youths and even policemen". Others might view these as people making deliberate fun of Lalu.

Lalu has been recognised as a brand on his own amongst a few industries in rural Bihar.

A Patna-based company had launched "Lalu Khaini" (tobacco) in 2004, which was a hit. In 2005, Speedage Corp. introduced "Laluji" dolls that became popular with kids. In 2006, Lalu ka Khzana, a chocolate produced by New Delhi-based Chetak company, became very popular with kids in rural areas of north Bihar districts like Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Madhubani. The wrapper of the chocolate packet depicted two different caricatures of Lalu — one as a politician and the other as a magician. More than 100,000 packets were reportedly sold.

A cheap cosmetic pack branded as Lalu Chale Sasural ("Lalu goes to in-laws house") had become extremely popular among rural Bihari girls, especially in the areas such as Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga and Samastipur. Each packet, priced at Rs. 23 (rouglhy half a dollar), contains items of daily use like face powder, cream, earrings, sticker, and a necklace.

In June 2006, Prakash Agro Industries in Bihar started selling cattle fodder under the brand name Lalu Pashu Aahar. It was reported that the outcome of this branding strategy had surpassed the company's expectations and they were facing problems in meeting the huge demand for their fodder

Relations with the entertainment industry

Lalu has a sizable fan following in Bollywood, which includes actors Sunil Shetty and Raza Murad; and directors Mahesh Manjrekar and Mahesh Bhatt; to name a few. According to actor Shatrughan Sinha, who is also a political opponent of Lalu's, had he (Lalu) not been a politician he could have been an actor. Mahesh Bhatt has gone to the extent of saying that Lalu deserves to become Prime Minister[3].

Lalu appeared in a cameo role in the 2004 Bollywood movie, Padamshree Laloo Prasad Yadav. Though his name appeared in the title, the movie was not about him, but had characters named Padmashreee, Laloo, Prasad and Yadav.

Lalu is a popular subject of jokes among comedians like Shekhar Suman, Johnny Lever and Paresh Rawal. Shekhar Suman was a little known actor until he achieved some fame by mimicking Lalu and is said to have carved a career out of it [4].

Criticisms and controversies

Yadav's party is alleged to have "continued in power for several years on the strength of the Muslim-Yadav combination", and is considered extremely popular among members of both communities. At the same time, his brand of politics has caused a great deal of resentment among other caste groups such as Bhumihar Brahmins, Rajputs, other Brahmin sub-castes and Kayasthas (who Lalu has collectively dubbed Bhurabal meaning brown hair). While Lalu has been criticised for aggravating caste divisions through his policies, his admirers claim that he helps disadvantaged groups out of a belief in secularism and social justice.

Some MPs belonging to Lalu's party (RJD) have criminal charges against them. The most notorious is the Siwan MP Mohammed Shahabuddin. Many of Lalu's own party members including Gopalganj MP Sadhu Yadav (brother of Lalu's brother-in-law Subhash Yadav) had asked him to sever ties with Shahbuddin.

Corruption allegations

Lalu has been charged with corruption cases, the most famous being the "Fodder scam". In the Fodder Scam, the funds meant for cattle fodder were diverted from the animal husbandry department. Lalu was one of the main accused in multi-million rupee scam. After corruption charges compelled Lalu to step down as chief minister of Bihar in 1997, he made his wife Rabri Devi the chief minister. From 1997 to 2001, Lalu was sent to jail five times. Lalu was first sent to "Judicial remand" (Bihar Military Police guest house, Patna) on July 30, 1997 for 134 days. On October 28, 1998, he was sent again to the same guest house for 73 days. When the Supreme Court of India took exception to his guest house stay, he was shifted to the Beur jail in Patna. He was later remanded for 11 days on April 5, 2000, in a disproportionate assets case. He surrendered along with his wife, Rabri Devi, and was sent to the Beur Jail. Due to proceedings in the fodder scam, Lalu was remanded for a day in Beur jail on November 28, 2000.

On November 26, 2001, he was again remanded, in a case related to the Fodder scam. Lalu accused NDA of creating a conspiracy against him. On October 1, 2004 the Supreme Court of India served a notice to Lalu and Rabri Devi on fodder scam. This was in response to a petition, which alleged that they have been interfering with the investigation.

Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife, Rabri Devi have been acquitted in disproportionate assets as per judgment delivered on 18 December 2006.[5]

In August 2008, CNN-IBN alleged that Lalu Prasad had misused his position as the Union Railway Minister to help his relatives acquire land. A year-long investigation by IBN7 shows that Lalu bought land, worth several lakh rupees for his relatives, from those who aspired for a job in the Railways.

Accusations against the BJP

On August 5, 2004, Yadav claimed that L.K.Advani, senior BJP leader and leader of the Opposition was an accused in a conspiracy to kill Mohammed Ali Jinnah and described him as an 'international absconder'. On September 14, 2004 Lalu asked L.K.Advani to come clean on ‘his involvement' in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah

On September 28, 2004,Lalu alleged Mr. Venkaiah Naidu,the then Union Rural Minister, of having sold 55,000 tonnes of wheat in the name of drought relief distribution in AP. "A CBI probe will be initiated to find the truth" he said.

Perceived institutional bias against Lalu

Supporters of Lalu Yadav have claimed of Lalu being subject of institutional bias against him, which can be divided into: Media bias and other institutional biases.

Although he has maintained a good relationship with the media, at times he has accused the media of being unfair, and has even gone so far as to threaten to sue certain media outlets for defamation. AlthoughThe Media bias against him has been recognised by certain sections of press, the media counters this claim that it has simply been highlighting corruption cases against Lalu as a part of its function as a free press.

Lalu and his supporters have also claimed that some other institutions like the Election Commission of India have shown a bias against him on many occasions, the most recent being the last Bihar State Assembly Election, whereas the Election Commission claims that it always has simply been doing its duty to prevent frauds and unethical behavior committed by Lalu and his supporters during Bihar state/general elections. Supporter of SIMI: he have supported SIMI after the July serial blast, many say as to appease the Muslim Vote Bank.

Positions held

• 1977: Elected to 6th Lok Sabha at the age of 29.
• 1980–1989 Member, Legislative Assembly (two terms) of Bihar.
• 1989: Becomes the leader of Opposition, Bihar Legislative Assembly, Chairman, Pustakalaya Committee, Convenor, Committee on Public Undertakings, Re-elected to 9th Lok Sabha (2nd term)
• 1990–1995 Member, Bihar Legislative Council
• 1990–1997 Chief Minister, Bihar
• 1995–1998 Member, Bihar Legislative Assembly
• 1996: Lalu's name springs up in a major scam
• 1997: parts with the Janata Dal and forms Rashtriya Janata Dal.
• 1998 Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha (3rd term)
• 1998–1999 Member, General Purposes Committee, Committee on Home Affairs and its Sub Committee on Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
• 2004 Re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha (4th term).Appointed as Cabinet Minister looking after the Ministry of Railways. In 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha with his party emerging as a key ally of the Congress.

External links

• Lalu Runs Indian Rail Where as 9 Fodders Get Jail
• Laloo Prasad Yadav, 21 Century Turnaround Manager, Indian Railways Management
• Home Page on the Parliament of India's Website
• Prime Minister condoles passing away of Satyendra Narayan Sinha
• The Rise, Rule and Fall of Lalu in Bihar
• The rise and fall of Lalu Yadav
• Profile of Laloo on BBC as of March 2004.
• Interview with Laloo on Asia Times from September 2004
• Laloo Yadav Images
• Ruling ally loses key India poll, BBC article, 22nd Nov, 2005
• Riding the 'earning horse' Interview with Laloo Prasad on INSEAD Knowledge May 2008