Cornered Laloo Yadav plays prince charming of Pataliputra

PATNA, May 3: Arre Kesri ke khilaph nahin, voh chacha hain'', Laloo admonishes his 7-year-old-daughter Rajlakshmi, as nearly a dozen chil...

PATNA, May 3: “Arre Kesri ke khilaph nahin, voh chacha hain”, Laloo admonishes his 7-year-old-daughter Rajlakshmi, as nearly a dozen children of the Bihar Chief Minister’s extended family go around his Anne Road residential complex shouting, “Laloo Yadav mat ghabrana, tere peeche naya jamana”.

Rajlakshmi, whose birth coincided with Laloo’s ascendancy to the throne in 1990, leads the band comprising his sons, Tej Pratap and Tarun, daughter Anamika and his grand-children. Waving green Janata Dal flags, the children resume shouting “BJP-Samata-Samajwadi Party murdabad”, only to be chided by Laloo’s brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav, that they shouldn’t abuse the friendly SP also.

The softening of attitudes in the Laloo establishment indicates that the Chief Minister does not want to add to the list of his detractors. Rather, he is going out of his way to woo some of them back.

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Unlike his fellow traveller in Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Yadav, who lost his cool when Mayawati usurped the Chief Minister’s post from him, Laloo has adopted Lakhanavi tehzib (graceful manners) in his hour of crisis and evidently feels discretion is the better part of valour.

From the day the CBI bombshell threatened his cosy nest, Laloo has climbed down from the first floor of his palatial house to stay in the spartan outhouse below. Instead of the usual scowl, welcoming smiles greet visitors.

Even Sadhu Yadav tries to play prince charming. “How are you? I hope you bear no grudge now”, Sadhu asks dissident MLA Ashok Singh, before escorting him to meet an over-anxious Laloo. “You see there is no dissidence in the Bihar JD”, Sadhu tells a scribe. In the last two days, he has tried hard to mend fences with most of the two-dozen known Laloo opponents and arranged secret parleys between them and Laloo. Hope springs eternal in Laloo. Even when the tidings the visitor brings are far from happy, he refuses to be provoked.

For instance, the former DM of Ranchi virtually abused Laloo on Thursday night for withholding his promotions. The officer, whose name figures in the fodder scam, wants to know why Laloo was not promoting him since he himself had dismissed the CBI charge-sheets as a conspiracy. He threatens Laloo that he will spill the beans for he claims to have done everything at the Chief Minister’s bidding. The problems of governance are put on hold but whenever a JD MLA comes with a problem, the Laloo establishment is prompt in finding a solution.

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The crisis has, ironically enough, brought peace to Laloo’s household. His two brothers-in-law, Sadhu and Subhash Yadav, now work in tandem, realising that “all will be lost if the family doesn’t hold together”.

Adversity seems to have made Laloo remember manners. Gone is the chair on which the overlord of Bihar habitually rested his weary legs . “Main kuch nahin boloonga” (I will not say anything), replies Laloo when asked if some United Front leaders are also conspiring to throw him out.

“Rajiniti ki ek tehzeeb hai” (there is a culture of politics), says Laloo. And then come the pearls of wisdom from a Lakhnavized Laloo: “Politics me matbhed aur virodh hote rahenga, par topi uchhalne ki kya zarrorat hai (differences and opposition is part of politics, but it shouldn’t lead to mud-slinging)”.