In mid 1990s when Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Bihari politician was firmly at the helm of power, teachers were protesting for non payment of salary for ages. When confronted Laloo told the striking teachers that there was no money in the state exchequer. A teacher asked him - "But you Sir travel in state airplane every day. Where the money is coming from" ? To which a visibly irritates Laloo replied, "RAJA KE LIYE TO KHARCHA HONA HI CHAHIYE NAA (A King has his expenses which must be taken care of ).
For Laloo, he was the superior king destined to rule over the inferior subjects, as he perceived the later. Same goes with other feudal states like Odisha and to some extent UP. Ironically it came from the mouth of a man who rose to fame under the tutelage of Jai Prakash Narain - the famous leader from Bihar known for his simplicity and practicing true form of socialism.
There is also another anecdote of Laloo's famous idiosyncrasies. The villages in Bihar are notorious for bad road conditions. Once during his visit to one such places upon confronted by the locals protesting the same, Laloo came up with his weird rustic logic - "Good roads will only help the rich who drive cars which will bring them to your villages. Your kids and cattle will be trampled over by their vehicles. So why you need good road ?" Congress party and its cohorts want people to stay permanently poor so that they can perpetually vote for them, seeing their political leaders as messiah of the poor.
Down the road, nothing much seems to has changed. Laloo and his family managed to stay in power and still ruling. Absolute power has corrupted them absolutely, as the state still languishes at the top of the BIMARU state ( an acronym for the poor states of Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP, means Sick).
In this context, the Bihar politics is currently taking an interesting turn, with Laloo and family
of plain thugs are hunted by CBI let after them by the BJP ruled center. Bihar being from the politically important cow belt with its valuable 40 seats is vital in BJP's calculations for 2019 elections. The aggressive Modi - Amit Shah duo who have already set the ball on roll for their reelection well ahead of their rivals, are leaving no stones unturned by trying to kill two birds in one stone.
The first bird is Laloo who obviously is the easier target with tons of skeletons in his cup board and his family members follow his suit. He is unequivocal opponent of the Saffron party, its bette noire since October 1990 when he stopped the Advani juggernaut at the town of Samastipur in Bihar, taking the BJP Bull by horn. Laloo has maintained his consistency of being anti BJP, as he is a political non entiry without the support of the 20% Muslims from his state.
The 2nd bird is Nitish Kumar, a selfish politician with the ambition of being the Prime minister of India one day. In order to fulfill his dream, he quit his alliance with BJP with the preposterous but usual excuse of secular - communal crap. Unlike Laloo, for the image conscious Nitish his clean, non corrupt image is his forte and vital for his political survival.
Laloo does not care for the image of himself or his family, as he can bank on his time solid time tested Muslim - Yadav vote bank. But Nitish Kumar does, as in the caste ridden badlands of Bihar politics he can't survive banking on his fragmented OBC support. His clean image trumps all vote bank politics of Bihar (I see here some parallels with politicians Ram Krishna Hegde of Karnataka and Naveen Patnaik of Odisha who have an obsession with clean image).
A shrewd politician he is, Nitesh knows his image is his asset and he can't afford to see it tainted by his association with Laloo's family sitting next to him in administration. That's why he refused to share the same dais with Modi w
couple of years back, now couple of days back he avoided sitting next to Laloo's son. His classic Catch 22 situation putting him in a quandary reminds me of this Odia proverb :
"ENU MARILE GO HATYA,
SENU MARILE BRAHMA HATYA,"
transliterated it means
"On one hand you commit cow killing,
On other hand you butcher a Brahmin."
For the sake of his image, he is probably ready to sacrifice his Chief minister's chair. But for the time he is playing both sides for now, pitching for Sonia Gandhi to mediate as relinquishing a position of power ain't easy, as going to an election being while at the helm of power is always seen as an asset. But the formidable Modi - Amit Shah duo have cast their dice and made their move, checkmating their ex partner in power with a defensive position with few moves to spare.
For Laloo, he was the superior king destined to rule over the inferior subjects, as he perceived the later. Same goes with other feudal states like Odisha and to some extent UP. Ironically it came from the mouth of a man who rose to fame under the tutelage of Jai Prakash Narain - the famous leader from Bihar known for his simplicity and practicing true form of socialism.
There is also another anecdote of Laloo's famous idiosyncrasies. The villages in Bihar are notorious for bad road conditions. Once during his visit to one such places upon confronted by the locals protesting the same, Laloo came up with his weird rustic logic - "Good roads will only help the rich who drive cars which will bring them to your villages. Your kids and cattle will be trampled over by their vehicles. So why you need good road ?" Congress party and its cohorts want people to stay permanently poor so that they can perpetually vote for them, seeing their political leaders as messiah of the poor.
Down the road, nothing much seems to has changed. Laloo and his family managed to stay in power and still ruling. Absolute power has corrupted them absolutely, as the state still languishes at the top of the BIMARU state ( an acronym for the poor states of Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP, means Sick).
In this context, the Bihar politics is currently taking an interesting turn, with Laloo and family
of plain thugs are hunted by CBI let after them by the BJP ruled center. Bihar being from the politically important cow belt with its valuable 40 seats is vital in BJP's calculations for 2019 elections. The aggressive Modi - Amit Shah duo who have already set the ball on roll for their reelection well ahead of their rivals, are leaving no stones unturned by trying to kill two birds in one stone.
The first bird is Laloo who obviously is the easier target with tons of skeletons in his cup board and his family members follow his suit. He is unequivocal opponent of the Saffron party, its bette noire since October 1990 when he stopped the Advani juggernaut at the town of Samastipur in Bihar, taking the BJP Bull by horn. Laloo has maintained his consistency of being anti BJP, as he is a political non entiry without the support of the 20% Muslims from his state.
The 2nd bird is Nitish Kumar, a selfish politician with the ambition of being the Prime minister of India one day. In order to fulfill his dream, he quit his alliance with BJP with the preposterous but usual excuse of secular - communal crap. Unlike Laloo, for the image conscious Nitish his clean, non corrupt image is his forte and vital for his political survival.
Laloo does not care for the image of himself or his family, as he can bank on his time solid time tested Muslim - Yadav vote bank. But Nitish Kumar does, as in the caste ridden badlands of Bihar politics he can't survive banking on his fragmented OBC support. His clean image trumps all vote bank politics of Bihar (I see here some parallels with politicians Ram Krishna Hegde of Karnataka and Naveen Patnaik of Odisha who have an obsession with clean image).
A shrewd politician he is, Nitesh knows his image is his asset and he can't afford to see it tainted by his association with Laloo's family sitting next to him in administration. That's why he refused to share the same dais with Modi w
couple of years back, now couple of days back he avoided sitting next to Laloo's son. His classic Catch 22 situation putting him in a quandary reminds me of this Odia proverb :
"ENU MARILE GO HATYA,
SENU MARILE BRAHMA HATYA,"
transliterated it means
"On one hand you commit cow killing,
On other hand you butcher a Brahmin."
For the sake of his image, he is probably ready to sacrifice his Chief minister's chair. But for the time he is playing both sides for now, pitching for Sonia Gandhi to mediate as relinquishing a position of power ain't easy, as going to an election being while at the helm of power is always seen as an asset. But the formidable Modi - Amit Shah duo have cast their dice and made their move, checkmating their ex partner in power with a defensive position with few moves to spare.
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