Lalu Prasad: Leading the way

New Delhi, Oct. 22: The Congress has trained its guns on the BJP instead of just Raj Thackeray for the anti-migrant attacks in Maharashtra, taking a leaf out of Lalu Prasad’s political guide.

As the violence, instigated by Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), moved from the west to Bihar in the east, Congress sources admitted that they needed to deal with the “crisis” as more than merely a law-and-order problem.

“It requires astute political management because the repercussions will be felt in the whole Hindi belt, sooner than later,” a central minister said.

Any strategy, he said, would have to factor in what the Congress’s Maharashtra unit has conveyed to the Centre — that it could not afford to lose Marathi-speaking voters while rooting for the rights of the heartland migrants.

At the same time, the Congress could not ignore protests from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and the Samajwadi Party, the minister said.

Lalu Prasad had prodded the Centre to direct Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to arrest Raj. “Otherwise, he would have dragged his feet as he had done in the past,” a Congress source said.

When Lalu Prasad’s Bihar rival, the Janata Dal (United), demanded to know why he was not pulling out of the UPA coalition in “protest” against the Congress’s “inability” to crack down on the MNS, the railway minister had retorted by asking what the Dal (United) was doing in the NDA in the Shiv Sena’s company.

Almost on cue, the Congress has slammed the BJP’s “mild” reaction to the mayhem unleashed by the MNS. Barring the party’s Bihar MP, Shahnawaz Hussein, leaders have avoided taking a harsh line either on the MNS leader or his estranged uncle, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, in whose footsteps Raj has followed, the Congress said.

Asked if the Congress backed Lalu Prasad’s demand for a ban on the MNS, spokesperson Manish Tiwari hinted at a nuanced change in tack — from railing at Raj to bringing the BJP in the firing line.

“Raj has been given a disproportionate amount of importance by parties and civil society…. He should be dealt with like a lumpen. But why is the BJP silent?” he asked.

The sources underlined two reasons for the “change”: one, to embarrass the BJP whose stakes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are greater than that of the Congress; two, to guard the Maharashtra Congress’s flanks in the “sons-of-the-soil-versus-outsiders” debate.

“If we deflect attention to the BJP from the Sena and the MNS and expose the contradictions in its ranks, the canvas of our offensive gets enlarged. Our state leaders will not have to sound apologetic each time the ‘Maharashtra manoos’ slogan is raised,” a source said.

But the belated amendment in the political tactic came with a “price”, the sources said, in the form of a “revival” in the Sena-MNS fortunes, thanks to the Congress chief minister.

“Deshmukh’s initial logic was that if he covertly patronised the MNS by going easy on Raj, it would split Sena votes and help the Congress. But that hasn’t happened. Raj and the Sena’s pockets of influence are quite different and scattered all over the state,” a Maharashtra MP said.