Lalu asks Sonia, Manmohan to inculcate Gandhian austerity

RJD chief Lalu Prasad today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to inculcate the “Gandhian way of austerity” by travelling in general compartments of trains before asking others to follow suit.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to inculcate the “Gandhian way of austerity” by travelling in general compartments of trains before asking others to follow suit.

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“Mere suggestions on the contentious issue will not suffice,” Prasad told PTI in Patna.

“People at the top, including Gandhi and Singh, besides Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and others should inculcate the Gandhian way of austerity and his austere lifestyle so that the thought percolates to the lower level”, he said.

Asking Gandhi and Singh to first take a lead and start travelling by trains “in third class or general bogies” in keeping with the practice of the Father of the nation, Prasad said “if they start inculcating austere lifestyle and become frugal, others will definitely follow suit”.

When asked whether he was saying this out of sarcasm, the former Railway minister replied. “I am saying this with all seriousness”.