Lalu Yadav
The RJD president and former Bihar chief minister is one of our most colourful politicians.
The RJD president and former Bihar chief minister is one of our most colourful politicians. He is a product of the JP movement. The movement started by JP brought the Emergency to an end, led to the massive defeat of Indira Gandhi and her Congress party at the polls, and, to the installation of a non-Congress government - The Janata Party - in Delhi, for the first time.
Sadly, soon after attaining power, bickering began among the leaders of the Janata party, which led to the resignation of Desai as the Prime Minister.
Subsequent bickering in the Janata Party led to the formation of a breakaway political party - the Janata Dal. This political party was a constituent unit of the ruling coalition at Delhi, the United Front. It was also from this party that Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Chief Minister of Bihar until recently, was elected. The bickering continued. A new party led by Yadav was formed - the Rashtriya Janata Dal - which is the present ruling party in Bihar.
History, of course, had a different design up its sleeve. As the wheel has turned a full circle, the messiah of the poor who enthralled the national audience by his rustic ways and who proclaimed himself as the kingmaker has been proved to be the kingpin of unscrupulous scamsters whose one-point programme was to fleece the government exchequer for his personal ends as well as to keep a whole brigade of his cronies in good humour.
His transformation from a small time neta to the most powerful leader of Bihar has not affected a wee bit the ease with which he uses the rustic slangs to mesmerise the masses. And that's perhaps the key to his charisma.
Lalu Prasad Yadav thrives in controversy. He has been in controversy for his alleged involvement in Rs 1000 crore-fodder scam, promoting his wife and brothers in law in politics and whipping up caste hysteria during polls.
Of late, his children have tuned out to be a major source of controversy around him. The Income-Tax department served notices on RJD chief and the Chief Minister Rabri Devi asking for the details of the expenses incurred during the mega wedding of their first daughter Misa Bharati in 1999.
But then unruffled by what happened then, Lalu Yadav made Rohini's (his another daughter) wedding a more extravagant affair. Film actors and most of the politicians who attended his first daughter's wedding turned up at his second daughter's mega marriage event studded with film stars and who's who of Indian politics.
Rohini's wedding turned out to be a nightmare for the car shop owners and other big businessmen. His supporters led by his brothers in law Sadhu Yadav and Subhas Yadav allegedly "lifted" 45 air conditioned cars from various Mithila Motors, Carlo Automobiles and other car shops for carrying the guests at the wedding of the messiah of poor's daughter.