“Lalu Prasad is a household name in India after Indira Gandhi.” This is the apt opening sentence of this book, and a fact even his opponents would admit. The book convincingly makes this point by detailing the trajectory of Lalu’s life from penury to Minister for Railways. Over 90 full-page pictures of Lalu in different moods add to the well-produced 215-page book.
Lalu moved from his village to Patna for schooling at the age of six and famously studied by lamplight. At university in Patna, he learnt the basics of politics and endeared himself to all. He was “Lalu Bhaiya” to the girls. He married Rabri Devi after a pitched battle, according to her, because, unlike her sisters, she was going to a house with a thatched roof.
In the early 1970s, when the student movement was at its zenith, Lalu shone as a leader and addressed Jayaprakash Narayan as Lok Nayak. He was detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and later fathered nine children in protest against forced sterilization during the Emergency.
In 1977, the Janata Party came to power and provided a platform to student leaders to rise in state and national politics. When the Janata Party came to power in Bihar in the Assembly polls of 1989, Lalu became Chief Minister. Meanwhile, Prime Minister VP Singh implemented the Mandal Commission report and Lalu extracted maximum mileage out of it to consolidate his position among the Yadavs. His decision to arrest LK Advani during the latter’s Ram rathyatra made him a hero of Muslims, too.
When Lalu was brought down by accusations of involvement in the fodder scam, he installed his wife as his successor and ruled the state by proxy for another couple of years. In his present stint as Railways Minister, he has garnered admiration by engineering the turnaround of Indian Railways.
There are some anomalies in the book. It errs in saying that Lalu did not have a plan and the courage to arrest Advani on his own. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu’s bete noir, had planned to arrest Advani the moment the rathyatra entered UP to please the minorities in his state. Prime Minister VP Singh agreed but secretly asked Lalu to go ahead with Advani’s arrest as he did not want Mulayam to become the champion of the minorities in UP – also Singh’s home state. Mulayam never forgave Singh.
As regards inducting Rabri Devi as his successor, Lalu was in two minds. It was Chandra Shekhar who advised him to nominate his wife as Chief Minister for political reasons.
The first 38 pages, devoted to the history of Bihar, can be skipped for they are hardly relevant. The occasional insertion of newspaper articles dwelling on the economy of Bihar is a dampener. The six-page report of inquiry into the conduct of Central Bureau of Investigation officers who requisitioned the services of the Army for execution of the non-bailable warrant against Lalu in the fodder scam is also out of place. There is no need for the authors to push an agenda; perhaps they fail to realize that people love Lalu despite the fodder scam case. As for the four pages devoted to the authors’ profile, a paragraph would have been sufficient. The strength of the book lies in its factually demolishing the widely held misconception that Lalu’s début as Chief Minister was pure serendipity and not a consequence of earlier political struggle; that political power, intelligence, communication skill and administrative acumen are the monopoly of select castes and the convent class; and that Lalu can be dubbed casteist.
After becoming Chief Minister, Lalu visited his ancestral village Phulwaria to meet his mother Mirchhia Devi. He told her, “Mai! Ha mukhya mantri ban gaini (Mother! I have become Chief Minister).”
“Mukhya mantri ka ho re, babua (What’s Chief Minister, my child)?”
“Mai! Hathua raj mil gail (Mother! I usurped the power of Hathua Raj).” Lalu used the local term ‘Hathua Raj’(a local kingdom) which his mother understood. Soon she was brimming with joy. While she embraced and kissed her son, Lalu touched her feet. The innocent query of the mother is enough to explain from which family background Lalu had come.
The strength of the book lies in its factually demolishing the widely held misconception that Lalu’s début as Chief Minister was pure serendipity
