Lalu left red-faced as he asks 'Do you believe in caste?', youth say 'No'

Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was stumped today by an audience of youth on his favourite topic: caste. [caption id=“attachment_2430454” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] RJD leader Lalu Yadav takes questions at the IBN Dialogue Bihar 2.0. IBNLive[/caption] In his long-winding address at IBN Dialogue Bihar 2.0 organised by Network18 Group (that includes Firstpost.com), Lalu asked his audience, mostly youth, in his usual rhetorical way, “Do you believe in casteism?" Pat came the reply: “No”. That was not the answer he was expecting. So an insistent Lalu paraphrased his question: “Is caste relevant or not?” A forceful, full-throated cry greeted him again: “No, caste is irrelevant.” A stumped Lalu looked quite bewildered before he could recover his wits and respond rather sarcastically: “I bow to your wisdom.” And undeterred, he went on to emphatically explain the relevance of caste in Bihar to an audience which continued to be unimpressed with his caste pitch. He took recourse to the late socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia’s slogan of the Sixties and said that he had favoured empowerment of OBCs who comprised 60 per cent of the population. Lohia used to say that the empowerment of the OBCs would pave the way for a better evolution of society. Apparently Lalu’s attempt to convince the audience about relevance of caste did not find traction with the youth as one girl remarked, “You are doing casteism.” A rebuffed Lalu told her: “No, I am not doing casteism, rather I am taking up the cause of socially and economically marginalised sections of society." This protracted exchange with youngsters in the audience and his failure to win them over on the caste issue, may be significant to the election at hand. It is largely perceived that Nitish Kumar’s alliance with Lalu has robbed the latter of his development plank. Lalu is hellbent on harping back to the caste divisions of the 90s at a time when the youth of Bihar seem to be in a mood to transcend caste. This is expected to help the campaign of Narendra Modi who is pegging it on development and opportunity while reminding the state that electing Nitish’s coalition would mean return to jungle raj and end of development. Even while responding to questions on the fear of Jungle Raj returning to Bihar, Lalu stayed on the caste divide. He said their regime was being widely publicized as “Jungle Raj” since two backward leaders have come together to take on the BJP. He described the BJP not as a party but a mask of the RSS. To substantiate his charge, he told the audience about how several ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lined up before the RSS a couple of days back to give account of their performance. “Kahata hai ‘Jungle Raj’ hai. Lalu aa raha rai. Where is the Jungle Raj?” Lalu thundered. Mounting an attack on the BJP, the RJD chief called upon the masses to seek details of black money as promised by Modi on the Lok Sabha poll eve. “This is the right time to seek details of black money from Modi. Ask about the money promised to be credited in your bank accounts earlier,” he quipped. He also questioned Modi’s visit to a mosque in Dubai and asked him to explain the reason behind it. “I know the reason, and if he (Modi) did not mend his ways, I will let the masses know the reason,” Lalu said but refused to divulge any further. He dismissed the opposition’s charge of being opportunistic saying he joined hands with Nitish just to stop the BJP from coming to power. He claimed the “match” is over in Bihar even though the game is yet to start. Political pressures notwithstanding, Lalu appeared to be in his full spirit today claiming he had his “consumer”” (his fans) spread all over the world. “Lekin unko koi puchhata hai (But who bothers about them)?” asked Lalu in oblique reference to his rivals. Though he seemed to be out of tune with the youth on the caste issue, there were moments of vintage Lalu when he claimed the women folk have been only too eager to take selfies with him. “They always request for selfies and I never disappoint them. I just tell them not to misuse them (selfies),” Lalu said. With inputs from Manoj Kumar