Lalu Prasad Yadav
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Lalu Prasad Yadav (Also spelt LalooEarlier, media used to spell Lalu as Laloo. In June, 2004, Lalu clarified that his name should be spelt as Lalu and not Laloo. ) .(Devanagari: लालू प्रसाद य़ादव) (born 1947The official birthdate of Lalu Prasad Yadav is June 11, 1947, but his actual birthdate is unknown. ) is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a political party of India. He is also the Minister for Railways in the United Progressive Alliance government. He has also been Chief Minister of Bihar.He is known for charismatic leadership and mass appeal. .He has been the only Chief Minister of Bihar ever to make official foreign visits.
Background
Lalu Prasad Yadav was born in a poor Yadav family. His father's name was Kundana Raiye. His native place is Phulwaria (district Gopalganj, Bihar). His parents were poor farmers. Despite this, he managed to earn a Master's degree in Political Science. Lalu's first political step was involvement in the elections of the Patna University students union, where he led the student movement inspired by Jai Prakash Narayan in the 1970s.Political career
Lalu came into the limelight when he handed over a charter of demands to India's then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, during the emergency (see:Indian Emergency) as a student leader. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977 at the age of 29. Within a short span of 10 years, he became a formidable force in Bihar state politics. During the 1989 general and state assembly elections, he led the National Front coalition in Bihar to become a major political leader. He was soon elected Chief Minister of Bihar. Bihar was infamous for having many CMs in a short span of time before his appointment. He broke this jinx by lasting a full term. He surprised many with his performance in the following state assembly election by managing a majority on his own. Soon after Lalu became chief minister of Bihar in 1989, the BJP started the Mandir-agitation where an Indian politician L K Advani who is known for playing blatant communal politics, had threatened that if he was arrested there would be all around bloodshed in Bihar.[[Citing sources citation needed]] L K Advani was also charged with delivering inflammatory speeches against minorities. Lalu Yadav ordered the arrest of L K Advani during the rath yatra on october 23 1990 at Samastipur. Laloo prevented Hindu-Muslim riots, which could have easily begun at that point, particularly in Bhagalpur, which had an uninterrupted record of communal violence going back to 1930s.The World Bank once lauded his partyfor its work in the 1990s on the economic front.
According to the BBC, police unearthed a Fodder Scam in 1996 worth Rs 950 crore (US$ 267 Million) in Bihar (going back into the previous Congress government) which allegedly involved Lalu and the state's leading bureaucrats and politicians however the probe itself was ordered by him.
Railway minister in UPA government
Lalu was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Chhapra and Madhepura seats of Bihar. He was made the railway minister in the UPA Government. Later, he gave up the Madhepura seat. Soon after becoming the railway minister, Lalu banned plastic cups used for serving tea at railway stations and announced that they will be replaced by kulhads (earthen cups). He said that this will generate more rural employment. Some newspapers later reported that few rural people were getting employment due to the use of kulhads; instead, there were industrialists interested in mechanized production of kulhads. Later, he also said that he had plans to introduce buttermilk and khadi for the railway passengers. The logic given was once again that of more rural employment.In June 2004, Laloo announced that he would travel by railway to get a first-hand experience of the problems faced by the Indian public; he once inspected the Patna railway station at midnight , although there were no reports of him travelling by trains. On August 10, 2004 Lalu undertook a surprise check at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi. He deducted the salaries of about 500 latecomer employees and sent them back.[[Citing sources citation needed]] On August 16, 2004, Lalu carried out a surprise check on a goods train coming from Mumbai at Danapur station. He found that weights of consignments were under-assessed, leading to loss of revenue for Railways. He claimed that railway officials, transporters and consignees were part of a racket.
During Lalu's tenure as the railway minister, many rail mishaps and crimes took place(but a lesser amount than during any other ministers tenure). To check the crimes, he planned to introduce joint patrolling by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Railway Police (GRP).
On July 7, 2004, Lalu presented his first railway budget, which was boycotted by NDA. Lalu didn't increase fares. He announced new trains, many of them passing through Bihar. He also offered free second class travel for central governmental job-seeking travelers. Making a faux pas, he said that he would revoke the contract of A H Wheeler & Co, which runs newspaper stands on most Indian railway stations, because they were an English firm. The firm is, however, owned by Indians.
In July 2004, Lalu lobbied the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to declare a Rs. 3225 crore aid package for Bihar.
On July 13, 2004, Lalu announced an inquiry into the Godhra incident, in which several Vishva Hindu Parishad members were allegedly burnt alive by Muslims in a compartment of the Sabarmati Express.
On July 24, 2004, Lalu remarked casually that flood provided Bihar's poor people enough fish to eat.
In August, 2005, just before the assembly polls in Bihar, Laloo promised model railway stations, gauge conversion works and employment in Railways. Laloos's list of railway stations to be developed as "model stations" included 7 stations from Bihar and only 2 from the rest of India((one has to "select prior issue" from top-right of the webpage as August 14, 2005 to access this link) ). The seven stations in Bihar included Madhepura, Darbhanga, Patna, Kishenganj, Motihari, Araria and another station.
In August 2005, an Indian Railways advertisement in newspapers claimed that Lalu was "A visionary who scripted the financial turnaround of Indian Railways". The ad declared that Indian Railways, which was a loss-making entity in before 2001, had turned into a profit-making entity.
Lalu also "found" 80,000 old C and D grade vacancies in the Railways. The vacancies had existed for over half a decade and Nitish Kumar (his bete noire and his predecessor in the Railway Ministry) had also referred them to lure voters during earlier parliamentary elections. However, Nitish Kumar didn't last as Railway Minister for long, as National Democratic Alliance failed to return to power. Apart from this, Lalu cut the general and second class fare by one rupee, and announced the implementation of internet based ticketing and reservations. He also annouced plans for open ticketing and a new scheme on upgradation of lower class passengers to a higher class automatically.
Lalu Prasad Yadav is now credited with engineering the financial turnaround of Indian Railways, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Under him, the Railways booked an unprecedented surplus of 110 billion rupees (2.47 billion dollars)
An impressed Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is studying the Indian Railways turnaround story to make it a case study for its students.
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From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.Defeat in November 2005 elections
After ruling Bihar for 15 years, in the November 2005 elections, the NDA handed Laloo Yadav a shattering defeat. His party, the RJD managed to win just 54 seats, which put his party in a dismal third place, after the Janata Dal United(JDU) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).International interest in Lalu
It has been learnt through various sources that many foreign embassies and universities like the Harvard have sought his bio-data to know more about him. It is reported that The Indian government has been inundated with requests from embassies and high commissions asking for Lalu's bio-data, as well as the possibility of a visit, ever since he became a minister in the central government. Speaking to Asia Times Online, Lalu said, "People all over the world want to know how the son of a cowherd has risen to such heights. Their interest in me is a victory of Indian democracy." One of his officials said more than 100 missions have sought his bio-data and asked questions about him .[link]Lalu in popular culture
Many books have been written in praise of Lalu by local writers including Lalu Chalisa and Lalu Hala. These books are popular among the masses in the Hindi Heartland. Lalu is regarded as a cult figure among some of them. There are full time entertainers who mimic Lalu as a profession.Criticism and Controversy
Lalu is criticized mainly for three things - his use of Vote Bank Politics, his support to notorious elements and corruption.
Lalu Yadav has been the master of mass mobilisation which means polarisation of castes in context of Bihar sometimes referred to as Vote Bank Politics.
Notorious elements in his Fold
Some MPs belonging to Lalu's party (RJD) have criminal charges against them.Corruption
Lalu has been charged with corruption cases, the most famous being the "Fodder scam". In the Fodder Scam, the funds meant for cattle fodder were diverted from the animal husbandry department. Lalu was one of the main accused in multi-million rupee scam.Personal life
Lalu married Rabri Devi (who also held the post of Bihar's Chief Minister) in 1973 and has two sons and seven daughters. According to him, his large family is a protest against the forced sterilization during Indian Emergency (1975 - 77)Bollywood Relation
Lalu has a big following in Bollywood. The list of his supporters includes Sunil Shetty,Raja Murad,Mahesh Manjrekar,Mahesh Bhatt to name a few. According to Shatrughan Sinha if Lalu would not have been a politician he would have become an actor.[link]. Lalu did a cameo in a Bollywood movie titled Padamshree Laloo Prasad Yadav in 2004. The movie starred Sunil Shetty and Johnny Lever among others.Shekhar Suman,Johnny Lever and Paresh Rawal are frontline mimics of Laloo Yadav in Bollywood.Others are Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Raja Murad.Relationship with Media
Lalu has maintained uninterrupted good relationship with media people.This is despite the fact that many of them had been writing with pure malaise ever since his first stint as CM.Lalu had banned many reporters within first year of his tenure for spreading false information about him.Some of these reporters hailed from most reputed Publishing Houses of India.One such weekly called Dharmayug has closed its operations indefinitely.Some of the fantastic claims they made were Lalu has studied upto High School only.With passage of time Lalu's stay in power humbled them but still one may find reminiscence of malaise which gets reflected in indirect references [link].He was once called the Most Telegenic Personality by TV anchor Rajat Sharma of India TV fame.
Positions held
Footnotes and references
External links
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