He may swear by Sonia Gandhi’s leadership in Delhi, but when it comes to pre-poll jostling in Bihar, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav is not willing to yield an inch—even to the Congress. The latest: the Railway Minister has pulled the chain on a Congress move to distribute free wheat to his flood-hit state. Almost 5,000 quintals of wheat, collected by Youth Congress workers from farmers in Punjab and Haryana for distribution among flood victims in Bihar and Assam, are awaiting ‘‘free transportation’’ by train at the organisation’s Raisina Road headquarters since August 19. Half the stock is meant for Bihar and the rest for Congress-ruled Assam. It’s been 22 days since Laloo received a request for transportation on August 21, followed by four telephone calls from Sonia’s political advisor Ahmed Patel, a joint visit by AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vora and Minister of State for Programme Implementation Oscar Fernandez, and half-a-dozen visits by Youth Congress president Randeep Singh Surjewala. But far from being hassled by the delay, Lalu says: ‘‘It (the request for free transportation) is in the process. Everything is done in accordance with the procedure laid.’’ Congress sources quoted Railway officials as saying today that it would take one more week to ferry the wheat, as it needs another 72 hours after the weekend to implement the move. First, nine bogies will be made available for loading the wheat. Once that’s complete, the Railways would decide which train to use for transportation. ‘‘We can’t obviously run a special train for you,’’ Railways officials told Youth Congress members. Surjewala, conscious of Laloo’s clout at the Centre, has stopped short of directly blaming him. ‘‘Lalooji has given us an assurance, but red-tapism is not facilitating early transportation,’’ he told The Indian Express. With flood waters receding in Bihar, their effort may lose its purpose by the time the wheat actually reaches people, he said. However, Laloo is not relying solely on the delay to deny the Congress of any possible credit. He has obtained a memorandum from the Home Ministry (dated September 8), which says the wheat would be ‘‘distributed by state governments.’’ In other words, the Rabri Devi Government would end up distributing the wheat, instead of the Youth Congress. It is also unlikely that Sonia’s pictures on the wheat bags would stay when the beneficiaries receive them. That apart, the so-called ‘‘free’’ transportation is not free either. The Railway Ministry agreed to sanction the move only after it received an undertaking from the Home Ministry that it would re-imburse the cost of transportation—estimated at Rs 4 lakh—from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF).
