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alu’s Apocalypse:HOLDING CANDLE TO FUTURE, By Poonam I Kaushish, 5 Oct, 2013 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 5 October 2013

Lalu’s Apocalypse

 HOLDING CANDLE TO FUTURE 

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

The chickens came home to roost as the curtain rang down on the 17-year long Lalu Yadav saga. Which culminated in the RJD President earning another ignominious feather, becoming the second politician to be stripped of his Lok Sabha membership and regaled to five years behind bars in the infamous chara ghotala case. As the rustic-yokel-turned-gentleman mulls his new life in jail, what will come of his brand: “Jab tak rahega samose main aaloo, tab tak rahega Bihar main Lalu!”

 

Underscoring, a story of political malfeasance and assiduous cultivation of low morality for a place in high political society. Wherein, politics has everything to do with acceptability, little with credibility and public life is all compromises, not principles dripping morality sermons but not practicing it.

 

Of a leader whose USP is based on the postulate of Parliamentary democracy: Power from the people. Brand Lalu made its debut in 1990, marking a turning point in Indian polity, thanks to Mandalization. A new Made-in-India era of politics wherein a chaprasi’s son rose to “Shri Prasad”, the neta-Minister. Simplistically speaking, he charismatically questions his compatriots: “Kya ek chaprasi ka beta mukhya mantra ban sakta hai?” Leaving the historians to interpret the answer to his ascendency.

 

A husband who converted his 1990 “malai” raj into the 1997 wife “Rabri” raj with both lording over Bihar for 15 years in which Bihar sat on the bottom rung of every socio-economic ranking in the country.  A man who cared two hoots about political niceties and trashed democratic norms. A neta who symbolizes a brand of survival politics --- at its crudest. To use Lalu's jargon “jiski lathi uski bhains”.

 

Akin to a swap between empowerment of the potent MY (16% Muslim + 12% Yadav) voters combination and economic progress. “Why do we need cars, Bihar has no roads?” Adding, “The poor use lanterns, so what will you do with electricity?” His reasoning was simple. Economic development does not get votes. “Do you really want a road so that people can speed through your village in their big cars?’ And he was proven right more often than not.  No matter it brought the State to a standstill.

 

But despite all this Lalu managed to survive and stay relevant for close to 20 years, as Chief Minister then Union Railway Minister till his luck ran out and the long arm of law caught up. Raising a moot point: What lesson does his story tell? 

 

Undeniably, Lalu holds a mirror to the brazen and shameless manipulation of the system where our netagan have collectively taken advantage of it. If politics is a game of numbers and occupying the kursi the goal, all of them stand accused. In the coalition politics milieu see how the Congress-led UPA Government can be held to ransom by a regional satrap on a warpath. Sonia and her 216 MPs have to grovel before Ajit Singh’s 5 MPs RLD.

 

Lalu’s only crime is that he openly debunked probity as moral nonsense. Recall 1997 when he cocked a snook and stumped all by asking: “Where does the Constitution say that a Chief Minister duly elected by his people should resign merely on being charge-sheeted by policemen. I will rule from the jail.” No doubt, he is at fault

 

But at the same time he has exposed the hypocrisy of the political tribe. As long as he was part of the Establishment, all willy nilly winked at his misdemeanors’ letting him misuse and abuse the legal lacuna to his advantage till he ran out of legal lacunas. Even now, witness the guarded statement by staunch ally Congress and the ‘secular’ parties, “We-bow-before-law”. Sic. Translated, it reads, we will be back to playing footsie if and when he gets reprieve from the high court. 

 

Besides, Lalu has brought to the fore striking moral aspects of governance. Whereby, an honest person is perceived as one who does not get caught given that the UPA has been unable to convince anyone about its anti-corruption credibility. Thanks to the surfeit of scandals earning UPA II the ignominy of Republic of Scams, 2G con, Adarsh, CWG, Coalgate et al.

 

What next? Today, with General elections slated mid-2014, Lalu has limited political utility for the Congress; notwithstanding Sonia’s alleged ‘soft spot’ for him ever since he was the first publicly support her in 1997. In fact, the ill-fated ordinance to negate the July Supreme Court order that struck down a provision in the electoral law which allowed an MP-MLA to continue in their post if they appealed to the higher court within three months was reportedly aimed at protecting the RJD Chief in the immediate.

On the fallacious premise that by protecting him, the RJD-Congress could muster 25 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 polls else his Yadav vote-bank would desert him and the Congress would get nothing. Alas, now, when his fortunes are clearly being eclipsed, Lalu forgot that with just four MPs his Party’s MY base has also shrunk putting him on a weak footing in Bihar. Alongside he has limited appeal in a scenario where his bête noire Nitish Kumar has introduced a new element: Good governance. 

 

But, it is too early to write off Lalu. In politics never say die. In India’s dynasty driven politics, his sons Tej Pratap and Tejasvi have risen to take the Party forward. But they are not Lalu. Add to this, his brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav and others are laying a claim to the leadership.

 

Perhaps, history will treat Lalu Yadav and his ilk generously. Of a mass leader who exposed the rank hypocrisy of our flourishing political tribe. A maverick who took on the entire Establishment and dared it to dispense with him till nemesis caught up. The optimist will, no doubt, assert that it takes poison to kill poison.

 

In sum, let not Nirad Chaudhri’s words in his Book, “Three Horseman of the New Apocalypise” ring true. Said he: “The most striking aspect of governance in India after the gift of Independence by the British is its total falsity. Nothing is authentic, nothing sincere”. There is no gainsaying that the Laloo narrative should make our netagan do a double-take, “Politics might no longer be the last refuge of a scoundrel”. ---- INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

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