Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad may be lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, but he will stay connected virtually with the world.
"Dear friends! While in jail, My Twitter handle shall be operated by my office in consultation with family. I shall speak my mind through visitors. The fight to preserve the Constitution & protect the rights of vulnerable groups shall go on," said a post from Lalu's verified Twitter handle at 1.58pm on Monday afternoon.
"Laluji will use Twitter regularly despite being in jail because he has understood the value of this medium which is considered one of the best tools to attack enemies and also to pass messages to supporters," said a member of the team that handles Lalu's Twitter account from his 10 Circular Road residence.
"Whenever Laluji tweets, the media pick it up in seconds and flash it. That is how he will be always in touch with people and nobody will feel his absence," the Twitter handler said.
Lalu had joined the micro-blogging platform on January 15, 2014. Four years later, his handle @laluprasadrjd has 3.55 million follower, the maximum for a Bihar leader and more than even chief minister Nitish Kumar (3.11 million followers) and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi (1.35 million).
The JDU attacked Lalu for being active on Twitter.
"It is not possible to do outsourcing in politics but it seems that Laluji wants to break all the rules for the sake of his rigidity," said JDU MLC and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar. "He is convicted in corruption cases so one should not expect more from such a person. I do not think the jail manual allows that a person who is behind the bars will keep on issuing statements on social media."
When contacted, Patna High Court advocate Vindhyachal Singh said: "Article 19 of the Constitution talks about freedom of speech and expression but that is also subject to reasonable restrictions. It is not an absolute right. Over here the provision of the jail manual would be applicable. If any of the jail manual provisions permits him to tweet as a prisoner then he can tweet. If not, then he cannot tweet."
