Lalu Prasad Yadav
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Lalu Prasad Yadav (Devanagari: लालू प्रसाद य़ादव) (earlier spelt by media as Laloo Prasad Yadav1) (officially born on 1947-06-112) is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a political party of India. He is often referred to as Lalu. As of December 2005, he is the Minister for Railways in the Manmohan Singh government. Formerly, he was also the Chief Minister of Bihar.
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Early days
Lalu was born to Late Kundana Raiye at Phulwaria, Distt.Gopalganj (Bihar). Lalu first political step was involvement in the elections of the Patna University students union. Later he joined the student movement led by Jai Prakash Narayan in the 1970s.
Political career
Lalu is one of India's most maverick politicians and is a formidable force in Indian state of Bihar, which his Rashtriya Janata Dal has governed for 15 years.
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.
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Career highlights
Lalu Yadav ordered the arrest of L K Advani during the rath yatra on october 23 1990 at Samastipur.
In 1996 police unearthed a major corruption scandal (Animal Husbandry Scam/Fodder scam, Rs 950 crore (US$ 267 Million)) in Bihar (going back into the previous Congress government) which allegedly involved him and the state's leading bureaucrats and politicians(citation needed). His appeal is based on the mass mobilisation of the lower caste Hindu and Muslim votes(citation needed)and is regarded as the champion of social justice. The fodder scam forced him to resign as chief minister (citation needed)and installed his semi-literate wife, Rabri Devi, as his successor. He formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1997, after breaking away from the Janata Dal.
Railway minister in UPA government
Lalu was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Chhapra and Madhepura seats of Bihar. He was made the railway minister in the UPA Government. Later, he gave the up the Madhepura seat. The NDA opposed his inclusion in the cabinet, saying that he was a "tainted minister" because of the criminal charges against him (unnecessary comments). In August, 2004 Lalu said that he would support a law against tainted ministers(citation needed).
Soon after becoming the railway minister, Lalu banned the plastic cups (for serving tea) at the railway stations and announced that they will be replaced be kulhads (earthen cups). He said that this will generate more rural employment. Some newspapers later reported that few rural people were getting employment due to the use of kulhads; instead, there were industrialists interested in mechanized production of kulhads(unencyclopaedic)(citation needed). Later, he also said that he had plans to introduce buttermilk for the railway passengers(citation needed). The logic given was once again that of more rural employment. Soon after this, the Khadi Board approached Lalu asking him to promote the use of khadi bedsheets and blankets in trains(citation needed).
In June 2004, he announced that he will travel by railway trains so that he can get a first-hand experience of the problems faced by the Indian public(citation needed). He once inspected the Patna railway station at midnight, although there were no reports of him travelling by trains. On August 10, 2004 Lalu undertook a surprise check at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi. He deducted the salaries of about 500 latecomer employees and sent them back. On August 16, 2004, Lalu carried out a surprise check on a goods train coming from Mumbai at Danapur station. He found that weights of consignments were under-assessed, leading to loss of revenue for Railways. He claimed that railway officials, transporters and consignees were part of a racket.
During Lalu's tenure as the railway minister, many rail mishapes and crimes took place(which is lesser than during any other ministers tenure). To check the crimes, he planned to introduce joint patrolling by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Railway Police (GRP).
On July 7, 2004, Lalu presented his first railway budget. His budget speech was boycotted by NDA, because they considered him a "tainted" minister(unnecessary comments). Lalu didn't increase fares. He announced new trains, many of them passing through Bihar(citation needed). He also offered free second class travel for central governmental job-seeking travelers. Making a faux pas, he said that he would revoke the contract of AH Wheeler & Co., which runs newspaper stands on most Indian railway stations, because they were and English firm(citation needed). The firm (which was the first to publish Rudyard Kipling) is however owned by Indians.
In July 2004, Lalu lobbied the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to declare a Rs. 3225 crore aid package for Bihar.
On July 13, 2004, Lalu announced an inquiry into the Godhra incident, in which several Vishva Hindu Parishad members were allegedly burnt alive by Muslims in a compartment of the Sabarmati Express. The move was seen as a political vendetta against itself, by the BJP. In September 2004, BJP accused Lalu of influencing the inquiry.
On July 24, 2004, Lalu remarked casually that floods provided Bihar's poor people enough fish to eat(citation needed). The BJP severly criticized him for making such a "shameless" statement.
In August, 2005, just before the assembly polls in Bihar, Lalu promised model railway stations, gauge conversion works and employment in Railways. Lalus's list of railway stations to be developed as "model stations" included 7 stations from Bihar and only 2 from the rest of India(citation needed). The seven stations in Bihar included Madhepura, Darbhanga, Patna, Kishenganj, Motihari, Araria and another station.
Lalu also "found" 80,000 old C and D grade vacancies in the Railways to lure the voters. The vacancies had existed for over half a decade and Nitish Kumar (his bete noire and his predecessor in the Railway Ministry) had also referred them to lure voters during earlier parliamentary elections. However, Nitish Kumar didn't last as Railway Minister for long, as National Democratic Alliance failed to return to power. Apart from this, Lalu cut the general and second class fare by one rupee, and announced the implementation of internet based ticketing and reservations. He also annouced plans for open ticketing and a new scheme on upgradation of lower class passengers to a higher class automatically.
On August 14, 2005, Railways' advertisements appeared in newspapers like Times of India (Hum laaye hain toofaan se rail ko nikaal ke). The advertisement claimed that Lalu was "A visionary who scripted the financial turnaround of Indian Railways". The ad gave a comparison of Railways's financial situation in 2001 and 2005 and claimed that Indian Railways, which was a loss-making entity in 2001, had turned into a profit-making entity. However, on the same day, Mumbai Mirror reported: "...A supreme irony is while Lalu looks for more avenues to milk railways in the run up to the Bihar polls, his department has registered losses on parcel running into around Rs. 700 crore."(unnecessary comments)
Defeat in November 2005 elections
After ruling Bihar for 15 years, in the November 2005 elections, the NDA handed Laloo Yadav a shattering defeat. His party, the RJD managed to win just 54 seats, which put his party in a dismal third place, after the Janata Dal United(JDU) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).
Lalu's praise
Lalu is considered by many as the saviour of the lower castes and the Muslims in Bihar. His admirers hail him as a secular leader and a promoter of social justice. Like his fellow casteman Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, Lalu has a Muslim-Yadav (MY) vote bank, with the rest of the backward castes being "boggies" to the "MY" train(citation needed).
Lalu has been criticized for not having done much to alleviate poverty in Bihar. He once said - "Swarg nahin diya, lekin swar to diya." (I did not give them paradise, but I did give them voice). The World Bank once lauded his party for its work in the 1990s on the economic front.
According to a report at Rediff News (Harvard wants my bio-data: Lalu, September 13, 2004 08:31 IST), Lalu claimed "Many foreign embassies and universities like the Harvard have sought my bio-data to know more and more about me. I have come to know that the sociology department of Harvard University is doing a research on me. Though my rivals dub me as 'joker and a clown', the world wants to know who this person is and how he rose from a humble background to this height(citation needed)." Lalu's aids claim that more than 100 missions have sought his bio-data and asked questions about him because they are curious about Lalu’s rise in a near-feudal state like Bihar where the upper caste traditionally lorded over the underprivileged classes(citation needed).
Criticism and Controversy
Lalu's is criticized mainly for three things - his use of caste-politics, his support to anti-social elements and corruption.
Caste politics
Lalu has been winning elections in Bihar by luring so-called "lower-caste" people, the Yadavs and the Muslims(citation needed/POV/unencycopaedic). While he claims that he is doing everything for the upliftment for the weaker sections of the society, his critics accuse him of dividing the people on the basis of the caste.
Support for anti-social elements
Many of 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
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 the main accused in multi-million rupee scam(citation needed). After corruption charges compelled Lalu to step down (citation needed)as chief minister of Bihar, he made his illiterate wife(citation needed) Rabri Devi the chief minister.
From 1997 to 2001, Lalu was sent to jail five times. Lalu was first sent to "jail" (actually Bihar Military Police guest house, Patna) on July 30, 1997 for 134 days. On October 28, 1998, he was again sent 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 again sent to jail 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. Once Again for fodder scam, Lalu was imprisoned for a day in Beur jail on November 28, 2000. On November 26, 2001, he was again sent to the jail, 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(citation needed).
Personal life
Lalu married Rabri Devi (who also held the post of Bihar's Chief Minister) in 1973 and has two sons and seven daughters. His eldest daughter is Misa Bharati. Subhash Yadav is Lalu's brother-in-law.
Acting stint
Lalu did a cameo in a Bollywood movie titled Padamshree Laloo Prasad Yadav in 2004. The movie starred Sunil Shetty and Johnny Lever among others.
Footnotes
1. Earlier, media used to spell Lalu as Laloo. In June, 2004, Lalu clarified that his name should be spelt as Lalu (citation needed)and not Laloo. It was claimed that Lalu's political adversaries were responsible for promoting the mis-spelling(citation needed), as "Laloo" can be understood in Hindi as 'lalloo' or 'fool'. However, as 'Lalu' (or 'Laloo') is not an English name, such arguments are bound to arise because there is no standard transliteration of Hindi into the Roman script(citation needed).
2. June 11, 1947 is the official birthdate of Lalu, but on June 11, 2004 he said that no one knows his actual birthdate, as he was born to very poor parents.(citation needed)
3. Lalu's favourite quote,"Jab tak rahega samosa me Aloo, tab tak rahega Bihar me Laloo"(citation needed), meaning "As long as there is potato in Samosa, Laloo will remain in Bihar".
External links
- 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, 2005hi:लालू प्रसाद यादव