Bihar: Why rivals are not writing off Lalu Prasad yet

Manoj Kumar/ Patna He may be down, but he certainly is not out of the political ring. His conviction in the fodder scam by the CBI court has delivered Lalu Prasad a massive blow, but in Bihar, no one is writing an obituary on the RJD chief’s political career yet. His normally vociferous rivals, who have been calling him ‘chara chor, khazana chor’ all these years, have gone unusually quiet. Comments from them on the court’s verdict have been cautious. What explains this? Now that he has been penalized, do the political opponents feel sympathetic to him? The reason for it, political observers feel, is the fear of a backlash from Lalu’s loyal support base. Despite all his antics and long stint away from power, he is still one of the tallest leaders in the state. He is still considered the messiah of the backward classes. Any comment against him at this juncture could prove politically counterproductive. [caption id=“attachment_1162151” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “The reason for the silence could be the lurking fear in the rivals that voters could get polarized in favour of the RJD if they go aggressively against Lalu,” said DM Diwakar, director of the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna. “There has already emerged,” he explained, “a feeling of consolidation in a particular section of the society which feels aggrieved by the court verdict. The feeling in this section is Lalu has been framed by his rivals in the fodder scam under a deeper political conspiracy.” Nitish Kumar may have granted economic empowerment to Bihar but it was Lalu who gave a voice to the poor, dalits, backwards and oppressed, through social empowerment. “If the poor and backwards are now more conscious about their rights, then it is because of Lalu. This class of people was earlier looking saturated but in the aftermath of court’s conviction, they are looking restless,” says another observer, adding, “This class is not known for reacting much through words, rather at the polling booths”. Shaibal Gupta, political analyst, said the political class is keeping silent as a show of courtesy. “Laluji is a towering leader of Bihar,” remarked Gupta. No one denies that he still remains a major force in Bihar and the way crowds gathered at his rallies in recent months has been enough warning for his rivals. Soon after the conviction, the political conspiracy theory has gained ground and it is being endorsed by many of his supporters. If Lalu is punished why are other leaders roaming free? they have started asking. And for sure, no one believes that the RJD chief is dead as a political leader. “Lalu Prasad enjoys huge support base in Bihar and his party is not going to suffer by the court judgment,” observed JD(U) lawmaker Devesh Chandra Thakur, considered close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. According to him, Lalu is not that kind of a leader who will get politically finished just because of being sent to jail. “Ups and downs continue taking place in politics,” he explained. Almost similar observation came from another senior JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari, who said the imprisonment of the RJD chief would not affect his party’s support base. “In the past as well, Laluji had gone to jail and that did not affect his political career as much,” he observed, while another party parliamentarian Purnamasi Ram described Lalu as a “messiah of the poor”. The JD(U), it should be noted, is one of the strongest rival of the RJD. Even Lalu’s bitterest critic, Nitish, has kept this mouth tightly shut. All he would say is he wouldn’t comment on judicial matters. Ram, who represents Gopalganj constituency, said, “A deeper political conspiracy has been hatched to throttle the voice of the poor but that will not impact the RJD health since it has millions of workers spread across Bihar. He will remain the king maker now, if not the King,” he observed. No less mysterious is the silence of the BJP, the party which has been the most vocal about the fodder scam, going to the extent of calling Lalu a ’low grade thief’. Senior party leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who was also one of the petitioners in the fodder scam, was guarded in his reaction. In his response to the conviction he tweeted out safe lines. “It will be too early to write an obituary. It all depends whether higher courts give any relief or not. One should wait and watch what happens next.” He said, “Lalu Prasad was president of Patna University when I was its general secretary. I was in the same union, same assembly, same Parliament, same jail during the JP movement along with Lalu Prasad” The Congress is even more cautious in its approach. “Judgement in the fodder scam is a result of judicial process and we don’t think it is appropriate to comment on the judicial process,” said Congress’ state media in-charge Prem Chandra Mishra at a formal press statement. The message from the utterances is clear: no one is writing off Lalu.