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Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
(This piece is being republished on the occasion of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 73rd birthday. It was originally published on 11 June 2018)
They say laughter is the best medicine, and Lalu Yadav offered generous doses of it through his stint in Indian politics. The two-time Bihar chief minister, former Railway minister and once, the focal point of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in Bihar, which proved in 2015 Assembly polls that BJP under Narendra Modi isn’t invincible, Lalu Prasad Yadav is known for his wit and outspoken nature.
For Lalu, 2019 has been particularly grim year. After being convicted by the Ranchi court in several fodder scam cases, Lalu is out on provisional bail now and undergoing a medical treatment in a hospital in Ranchi. Without his leadership, RJD failed to win even a single seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. On his 71st birthday, The Quint looks back at the many shades of Bihar’s most prominent leader.
Remember the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls? That election cracked the code to defeat BJP – Opposition unity. Lalu Prasad Yadav took on Modi and decided to beat him at his own game. He mimicked Modi during a rally in Patna and at the same time, raised the point that the prime minister is a good speaker but he doesn’t deliver on his promises.
Probably one of the most amusing speeches of Lalu was delivered by him during the 2008 Railway budget. To highlight the achievements of his term as Railway minister, Lalu, in his typical way, presented his report card using Hindi poetry.
However, some of the MPs were not fluent in Hindi and Lalu translated the speech for them in English – a literal translation.
One of the most talked about political rivalry in independent India has been between Lalu and LK Advani. When the patriarch of saffron party led a ‘Rath Yatra’ to Babri mosque in 1990, Lalu Yadav who was then the chief minister of Bihar, arrested Advani and put a hold on the ‘Ram Rath yatra.’
Almost two decades later, when Congress-led UPA was facing flak for arresting Anna Hazare, Lalu addressed the MPs in Lok Sabha and reminded how he arrested LK Advani without much hassle and ruckus.
Lalu’s most recent target was his friend-turned-foe-turned-friend-turned-foe Nitish Kumar. After Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) parted ways from Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar, Lalu Yadav launched a stinging attack on Nitish and called him ‘palturam’ (someone who isn’t true to his words).
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