RJD happy days are near again

JD happy days are near againhe meeting of Lalu Prasad with the All India Congress Committee president, Sonia Gandhi, in Delhi on the 15th foundation day of the RJD has rekindled hope of his followers. They are expecting him to be a Union minister again.

Laluji will become a Union minister again,” a senior RJD leader said, insisting that senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh was advocating his cause. The JD(U) leaders are not worried over the development, though. “Both Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan are Union ministry hopefuls. Their supporters should realise that the next elections would be held in UP and not in Bihar. What will the Congress gain by their induction at this stage?” asked a JD(U) leader. The NDA leaders pointed out that the induction of Lalu in the Union cabinet would suit them fine. “How can the Congress remove Dayanidhi Maran and induct Lalu?” asked a BJP MLA, pointing towards the ongoing fodder scam cases.

Price tag or FIRs

When a senior citizen went to a police station recently to lodge an FIR regarding a cellphone theft, the policemen demanded Rs 50 from him. “The rate for FIRs related to the theft of mobile handsets is Rs 200. But since you are an elderly person we will only take Rs 50 from you,” the police officer told the senior citizen. The police drew a lot of flak when a lady police officer demanded money from the wife of a retired judge for police verification for passport. The lady police officer was suspended. But that does not appear to have made any change. “Perhaps the police stations should put up their rate cards to avoid confusion,” the senior citizen said.

Hot seat

Sitting next to important leaders of the party in a public function is regarded as an achievement for political workers aiming high. The Patna district unit chief of the RJD Devmuni Yadav initially sat at the centre of the stage at the 15th foundation day of the party. When former deputy Speaker of Bihar Assembly Shakuni Choudhary arrived, Yadav was asked to shift to a corner chair. The arrival of former MP Prabhunath Singh and his followers 10 minutes later “forced” Yadav out of the stage. “Overcrowding of the stage has been a big problem not only in the RJD but also of other parties. Virtually every second and third rank leader wants to be on the stage. Laluji is known for throwing out unwanted persons from the stage. But the political leaders never learn,” a senior RJD leader sitting on the stage said.

Kid’s old question

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen claimed that he had a long connection with Bihar and had come to the state for the first time at the age of 10 with his grandfather. The function he attended in Patna revealed that quite a few of his students resided in the city. A group of 50 plus men went up to him and claimed that they were his students. One of them spoke about two lectures Sen had delivered. The Nobel prize laureate heard them patiently but an eight-year-old boy in the audience was bewildered. “How can students be so old?” he asked his mother. The lady had no answer.