Lingo changeswith cop stick

The relationship between lathi and lingua was recently established at a police station in Patna. An eve-teaser tried to browbeat the sipahi (police constable) with fluent English.
“My sipahi used his lathi — two blows on the legs and the eve-teaser started to yell in a local dialect,” said the officer-in-charge of the police station. A senior officer said the police could make a person speak French using lathi. “English is of no use before a constable. It would have been better if he (the eve-teaser) had spoken in a language better understood by the constable,” the officer said.

Punching bag of politicians

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the punching bag of the state politicians, comes handy when it puts your political adversary at a disadvantage. Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who conceded to the demand of a CBI probe into the Purnea MLA murder case, was at the forefront of demanding a probe by the central investigation agency into the fodder scam. He was also a petitioner in Patna High Court when the RJD government then turned down his demand for a CBI probe. During the long trial of fodder scam cases, the investigating agency was at the receiving end for allegedly going slow on cases involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad and even shielding him. But the outcome of CBI investigations has not been very encouraging at times. “In the Shilpi-Gautam case, CBI concluded carbon monoxide poisoning in their AC car led to their death — a theory which was provided by Patna police right from the beginning,” said a senior politician.

Dal notice to dissidents

Dissident JD (U) MPs are finally facing the music. State party sources said notices had been issued to 250 leaders, including several MPs like Lallan Singh, Mangani Lal Mandal and Upendra Prasad Kushwaha. But none of the leaders are admitting it. Rather, they are denying it. Rajya Sabha MP Kushwaha, who sulked throughout the Assembly poll campaigning, recently said the media had wrongly quoted him. He said he was put up as a star campaigner but was never asked to campaign by the party. “None of my relatives contested on the RJD tickets,” he said. A JD (U) MP said these are normal face-saving excuses. Leaders in the past have also pleaded that they had been misunderstood and misquoted, the MP stressed. The JD (U) leaders, however, pointed out that the actual problem lies with Lallan, whose dissidence does not merely consist of a few statements. “Lallan campaigned for the Congress candidates,” said a JD (U) leader.

Camp changes, case continues

Some cases linger on even after the hostilities end. Dissident JD (U) MP Lallan Singh had filed a defamation case against former chief minister Rabri Devi for allegedly using objectionable words against him and chief minister Nitish Kumar in Chhapra during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. But Nitish and Lallan fell out later. In 2010, there was a rumour that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had strongly backed the Kisan Mahasabha maha rally held at Gandhi Maidan by Lallan Singh and other dissident leaders. Now that Lallan and Lalu are in the same camp, Lallan’s defamation case has become an embarrassment for them.