Lalu Prasad Yadav

During his tenure, Indian railways made unprecedented profits. He has been twice chief minister of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states.

His dramatic ascendance to power in 1990 was the culmination of a political process spanning Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, of backward castes demanding more electoral representation. He’s charming, witty and undeterred. He wanted to be India’s home minister to teach lawbreakers a lesson, and wants to be prime minister “someday”.

Rail Minister Lalu Prasad can communicate to Harvard graduates and Bihar voters with equal ease.