The Rabri effect

RJD chief Lalu Prasad recently gave credit to his wife Rabri Devi for the RSS switch from half to full pants. He declared that he would shortly fill the "half-empty brains" of the RSS and teach it not to be "communal". Rabri had in a public statement declared that old men in half pants in public should be ashamed of themselves. BJP leaders were irked. "The duo found fault in wearing half pants during a drill but see nothing wrong in calling their supporters with lathi s (sticks) to Gandhi Maidan to terrorise people," said a BJP leader, recalling the lathi rally held before Lalu Prasad and his regime were thrown out of power in 2005. BJP leaders declared that both Lalu and Rabri did not utter a word on half pants when the BJP was sharing power and all its ministers came in half pants to take part in drills.

Without Lalu

Recently, there were reports of some RJD workers in Gopalganj holding a meeting and demanding the expulsion of RJD chief Lalu Prasad from the party. The workers were reported to be followers of jailed former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin and were angry over their leader for not prevailing on Nitish to move the apex court against the don-turned-politician. "But I found the demand funny. The RJD without Lalu will be like London without the Big Ben or Paris without the Eiffel Tower," said a senior leader of the party in a private conversation, wondering how could such a demand could be made in his party. "It is like severing ties with the crocodile while living in the river," he added.