All about Lalu

Delhi based journalist Shivnath Jha has put his thirty-three year long acquaintance with Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad to good use by authoring a 260-page book, Lalu Prasad: India’s miracle. The book, sans any controversies, holds up a mirror to Lalu’s struggles, his poor background, and the resistance from his bride-to-be Rabri to marry a man without any land or wealth.The author who shares his alma mater, Bihar National College, with Lalu, first met the rustic leader in 1974-75 during the JP movement. The writer was then working as a newspaper hawker. The meetings continued as Lalu often visited the office of the Indian Nation, a well known daily (now defunct) from Bihar, where Jha worked as a copy holder.Meanwhile, Lalu loyalists used the recent meeting of the Rashtriya Janata Dal National Executive as an excercise in sycophancy. The Executive went out of its way to pass a resolution titled “Achievements of the Railway Ministry”. While felicitating the Railway Minister for his “historic achievements”, the resolution stated that the turnaround of the Railways had attracted the attention of management students in different corners of the world (The Tribune)