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No Fear No Favour

Despite criticism, Lalu still holds the tag of a crowd puller

From working as a clerk to becoming an Indian political minister, the journey of Lalu Yadav is quite impressive and underrated. Born on 11 June 1948, in Pulwarla, Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav is the President of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, former Chief Minister of Bihar, former UPA Minister of Railways, and former Member of Parliament of the 15th Lok Sabha. He is the second son of Kundan Devi and Marrachiya Devi. He has done his schooling from a local degree school.

As far as his further qualifications are concerned, he has done his graduation from bachelors in law and done his masters in political science, from B.N. college Patna University. He worked as a clerk in Bihar Veterinary College at Patna where his elder brother was also a peon. He had an arranged marriage with Rabri Devi on 1st June 1973. They have two sons and seven daughters.

The book that has been based on the life of Lalu Yadav is, “Subaltern Sahib: Bihar and the Making of Laloo Yadav”.The book is written by Sankarshan Thakur. Jal Prakash Narayan has inspired the mindset of Lalu, as he strongly follows his instincts. Raj Narayan(father of socialist movement) has also inspired Lalu, in terms of practices and ideologies. During the 1980s, Lalu Yadav was prominently known among Yadav and Muslim communities and was a strong force in Bihar politics.

Lalu served as Chief Minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 and Minister of Railways from 2004 to 2009 with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. In 1977, he was Elected to the 6th Lok Sabha. He was at the age of 29 when he was elected for the respective position. He was the member of the Bihar Legislative Council, from 1990 to 1995. In 1996, Lalu was entangled in the fodder scam.

In 2004, He was Re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha (4th term). Appointed Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Railways in UPA govt. Lalu, wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and daughter Misa Bharti booked for railway tender bribery scam, disproportionate illegal property, and income tax evasion cases in 2017. In 1998, a disproportionate assets case arising out of fodder scam was registered against Yadav and Rabri Devi.

In April 2000, both were made co-accused in the charge-sheet and surrendered. While Rabri Devi got bail due to being CM of Bihar, Yadav was remanded for 11 days and sent to the Beur Jail. Due to the proceedings in the fodder scam, Yadav was remanded for a day in Beur jail on 28 November 2000. CBI failed to prove them guilty and they were acquitted by a CBI court in 2006.

Bihar government wanted to appeal against the acquittal, but the Supreme court in 2010 ruled that the state government can not challenge such rulings. Lalu was convicted and jailed in 2nd Fodder Scam case of INR 8.927 million on the same day 23 December 2017 when his member of parliament daughter Misa Bharti was also officially charged by Enforcement Directorate in disproportionate assets. While 4 more fodder scam cases against him are also pending in the court.

Lalu was convicted 23 December 2017 and sentenced on 6 January 2018 to 3½ years’ imprisonment and INR 1,000,000 fine under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), section 420 (cheating and dishonestly), section 467 (forgery), section 471 (forged record) and section 477A (falsification) of the Indian Penal Code and for the fraudulent withdrawal of INR8,900,000 from the Deoghar district treasury between 1990 and 1994. The above scams are the two of the most prominent scams of Lalu Yadav. In spite of facing so much of criticism, and getting involved in the number of scams, people are still attracted to the way of talking of ‘Lalu Yadav’, and he is a crowd-puller, even today.

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