Lalu's leela

After being exiled from Bihar politics, Lalu has been reborn as an ace Railways Minister, and now, as a defender of the uber-liberal belief.

The hallmark of a true leader is his willingness to change with time. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s leela unfurled into a new avtar with his declaration of empathy for the suspended Patna University professor who has been in the news for his extramarital affair with a JNU student. We cannot but applaud the new and liberal Lalu. After being exiled from Bihar politics, he has been reborn as an ace Railways Minister, and now, as a defender of the über-liberal belief that what goes on between consenting adults is their business.

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But as a messiah of the downtrodden, Lalu has not forgotten the wronged wife and has come up with the Solomonian suggestion that the wife and the lover should live together in harmony with the prof. Synergy between available resources has always been a Lalu patent, whether it was bringing together Patna for his daughter’s wedding, or making the rural connect with urban India via the kulhars. It’s for the love trio to appreciate that there’s no scam here -- their story made fodder because their real love made a sordid take on camera.

This is a minister with a big heart and he doesn’t mind wearing it on his sleeve. With an understanding wife in Rabri Devi, maybe, just maybe, Lalu’s pitched to play Cupid next Valentine’s Day.