The legend of Lalu Prasad Yadav

During the mid70s at the peak of the Total Revolution movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan JP aimed at toppling the tyrannical Indira Gandhis regimeshed imposed a 21month Emergency in 1975young Lalu Prasad Yadavs stars were swiftly on the riseBihar was Ground Zero for the nonviolent movement to rescue the Constitution The young especially college students driven by impassioned idealism were leading the charge Yadav was just the right person at the right place elected at the time as president of Patna Universitys students unionGuess who were Yadavs deputies Sushil Kumar Modi who heads BJP in Bihar and Ravi Shankar Prasad union minister in the current NDA government Both of them feeling insecure about Yadavs proximity to JP ratted on the poor boy to the masterLittle boy Lalu had consumed liquor and collected money which were unaccounted for they told JP who summoned his proteacutegeacute Yadav admitted that he did drink toddy but deflected attention on himself ratting on a senior Shivanand Tiwari now with Nitish Kumars JDU insteadtelling JP that he smoked ganjaIts been over 40 years and Yadav clearly doesnt get along with Modi Prasad still If this anecdote from Yadavs recently released political memoir Gopalganj To Raisina coauthored by journalist Nalin Verma sounds schoolboyish thats because so is Indian politics or politics in general with petty egos driving personal ambitions at its core and public policy only an incidental byproduct of it allYadav gained national prominence at the end of the 80s With help from Chaudhary Devi Lal fellow champion of the ruraloppressed from Haryana he began to politick in New Delhi As Bihar chief minister he met the then Prime Minister VP Singh for the first time at his office apprising him of his deputy PM Lals parallel ambitions Singh assumed Yadav belonged to the Devi Lal camp Yadav told him to get rid of the old man instead This would be hard to pull off since Lal was a Dalit heroTo counter a possible perception crisis from the imminent move Yadav handed Singh a copy of the Mandal Commission Report on deeper castebased reservations in government jobs gathering dust since 1983 and asked him to instantly implement it Singh did it right away and that explains the turning point in contemporary Indian politicsThis isnt to suggest ideologies dont play an important role They certainly have in Yadavs case Besides JP he considers Ram Manohar Lohia from Uttar Pradesh educated in Germany strongly stationed in Bihar as his political mentorIn the mid50s Lohia founded Samyukta Socialist Party SamSoPa coining the slogan SamSoPa ne baandhi gaanth pichhara pave sau mein saathSSP is determined to get 60 per cent representation for backward castesin line with their population ratioin all spheres of life Besides as a casteled leader with strong Muslim support Yadav possesses a relatively inclusive liberal streak and was a rare leader to successfully take on religionbased politics in his state with the ascent of Mandir to counter Mandal in the early 90s This culminated with Yadav defeating the BJPRSSNarendra ModiAmit Shah juggernaut at the 2015 state elections Four years later as you travel in Bihar people still recall Yadavs mimicry of Modi with glee Modiji dheere boliye gala ka nas phat jayegaThis talent for humour and theatrical entertainment put to incredible use in the 90s when satellite television had just exploded is what gave Yadav a national edge Hes selfadmittedly an actor who even cracked his college interview because of firstrate mimicry of a character called Loha Singh from a popular Bhojpuri radioseriesThe relatively sober current CM Nitish Kumar also from Patna University had been Yadavs fellowtraveller over the years up until Yadavs second term as CM This is when Yadav admits success got to his head As chief executive he wasnt as prone to consensusconsultations upsetting colleagues along the wayNot one to take adversaries lightly the ModiShah government has ensured Yadav 70 languishes in jail over corruption charges His health is failing Yet his autobiography spanning 40plus years of public life is chiefly about contemporary politicians ongoing 2019 elections Mahagathbandhan grand alliance rather than much nostalgiamelancholy He sounds indefatigable stillAs CM Kumar is presently aligned with BJP He dumped Yadav after their combined win in 2015 and tried to return to the coalition before the 2019 elections but Yadav wouldnt take his calls One of the things he heavily criticises Kumar for is introducing the draconian alcohol prohibition law in Bihar wherein by May 2018 141 lakh people had been arrested for drinking even holding en empty liquor bottleYadav was part of the government when the booze ban was imposed He had Kumar relax the rule for toddy taxes on which he abolished as soon as he first came to power in 1990 Yup politics is inherently personal Isnt itMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to 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