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Journalism of Courage
Laloo Prasad Yadav has always been more of a politician and less of an administrator. As of now, rail accidents or not, his only preoccupation is to have all roads, and rails, lead to Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on December 23 for his show of strength before the February Assembly elections.
‘‘This will be the mother of all rallies,’’ the Railway Minister has been promising one and all — and unlike most of his promises, this one seems to be working out.
All hoardings — erected by private companies and the government alike — in Patna and other cities have been captured by the RJD. From all of them, Laloo, his wife and Chief Minister Rabri Devi, her brothers Subash Yadav and Sadhu Yadav, both MPs, are beaming. Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin also is among the prominent people.
All walls of Patna have been painted green, the RJD colour. The theme of the rally is ‘Bihar’s Development, Now or Never’ — the suggestion being that the RJD must be in the government at the Centre as well as in the state.
Since the Parliament session began, Laloo has rushed to Bihar at least five times to inaugurate projects, and campaign for his rally. Last week, he laid the foundation stone for a wheel factory in his constituency, Chapra. He was also scheduled to inaugurate a minority hostel in Gaya built by the State Welfare Department.
Laloo planned to make that an occasion to address Muslims voters, along with minister Shakeel Ahmad Khan. He took a special plane to reach Patna after a hurried visit to the train accident site in Punjab. However, as news of the uproar in Parliament reached, Laloo cancelled the Gaya trip and returned to Delhi. Before leaving, Laloo had called a meeting for the arrangements of the rally.
Each MLA, MP, minister and more so the ticket aspirant, has been given targets. As Laloo demanded to know the number of vehicles each one would bring, it was meticulously recorded by his staff. ‘‘I will count the vehicles,’’ he warned. At his public meetings Laloo has been telling people to reach Patna a day early.
Each MLA and MP has been ordered to provide food and shelter for the people who come from their respective regions. Leaders have even arranged dance troupes. The rally is expected to pull in a few lakhs to Patna. Though the Opposition is crying foul over the alleged misuse of administrative machiner, the RJD is far from defensive. ‘‘We are collecting the money from the people and special trains have been booked to avoid inconvenience to the public,’’ said Sanjay Paswan, RJD spokesperson.
