lallu prasad yadav

I still remember a photo in one of the issues of the now defunct wonderful political magazine "Sunday" where the newly become chief minister Lalu prasad Yadav, a staunch Lohiaite and disciple of Karpuri Thakur going around villages and personally overseeing hair cutting and bathing of children of Yadav and Dalit communities. He was pursuing the Karpuri Thakur's idealism and he turned upside down the entire caste equations and its power structure in Bihar. The Non 'upper' caste emerged a reckoning force in the land of Chanakya. When Advani's Ayodhya rath yatra was unleashing havoc across the country including riots in state after state (interestingly Advani, later on, gave complete credit for that rath yatra to current prime minister Narendra Modi, who was co-ordinating the yatra) , only Lalu Yadav had the guts to arrest Advani and stop that reckless and politically ambitious Advani and his rath yatra. Lalu was a maverick of Indian politics then, who never bend before anyone. Unfortunately, like all power politician, he also fell for the trappings of power dynamics and shoddy dealings: money, crime and power grab of family, where idealism had no role. His ill-reputed brother in law Sadhu Yadav was also instrumental in bringing down Lalu's reputation. Prakash Jha even made a film on the kidnap culture of Bihar under him. Luckily for Bihar, Nitish another Lohiate, came to power to take Bihar forward, where Lalu prasad abandoned it for hs family and personal fiefdom.

It is interesting with all his capacity for political manoeuvring, he could not muster the strength to escape fodder scam, perhaps not even a scam but a bureaucratic mishandling at local civic bodies.

Now with the IT raid, his fate look like sealed, or at least with his son at the helm of affairs, it looks like he will be restraint.
A wonderful photo by Praveen Jain shared by Kusum Kohli