Lalu Prasad Yadav has many feathers in his cap. But the one that stands out is his sense of humour, mostly when he's shooting from the lip in public eye.
The former Bihar chief minister and Union minister, who recently became grandfather after Tejashwi Yadav's son was born in Calcutta, probably has his one-liners and witty comebacks etched in national history. Like, 'Jab tak rahega samosa mein aaloo, tab tak rahega Bihar mein Lalu' gained pedestrian popularity when the Rashtriya Janata Dal main man used it to charm the rural electorate during an election rally in the early 2000s.
Let alone the politicians on his side, even those in the Opposition ranks have cracked up.
There could have been no better day to look at his humorous side than his 78th birthday.
'Pagli' moment with Mamata
During a heated discussion on cabinet expansion in 1999, Lalu Prasad Yadav turned to Mamata Banerjee and asked with a mischievous smile, “Didn’t you ask for the railway ministry?”
Mamata, as is her wont, shot back, “No, I never demanded it!”
Without missing a beat, Lalu delivered in his signature style: “If you didn’t ask for it, you won’t get it, pagli!”
The joke was so sharp-tongued that even Atal Bihari Vajpayee had cracked up.
In 1999, Lalu Prasad Yadav served as a Lok Sabha MP from the Madhepura constituency in Bihar. He was also the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the party he had established in 1997 following a split from the Janata Dal. And Banerjee had served as a Lok Sabha MP from the Calcutta South (now Kolkata Dakshin). She was also a Union cabinet minister in the NDA government headed by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
When Lalu recalled Nehru’s PM prediction for Vajpayee
In 1957, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru predicted that Atal Bihari Vajpayee would one day become the Prime Minister of India.
Vajpayee could have forgotten it, but Lalu Prasad remembered.
Decades later, during a 1999 Parliament session, Lalu Prasad Yadav referred to Nehru's remark while addressing Vajpayee, who was then serving as Prime Minister. With his trademark humour, Lalu said that while Nehru had indeed predicted Vajpayee’s rise to the top post, having now served two terms, it was time to "spare the country" from more elections.
Vajpayee, despite being the target of the joke, took it in his stride and joined the House in laughter.
Lalu tries his hand at English
During the 2008–09 Railway Budget presentation, Lalu Prasad Yadav (then Union minister for Railways) delivered his speech in Hindi. Midway, he attempted to translate parts of it into English. His broken English, paired with sharp wit, turned the moment into a lighthearted and laughter-filled episode in the Lok Sabha.
Even Speaker Somnath Chatterjee couldn’t help but join in.
"Tum agar mujhko na chaho" Lalu goes Bollywood style
In a 2008 session of the Indian Parliament, he used Dil Hi To Hai (1963) number Tum Agar Mujhko Na Chaho To by Mukesh to take a dig at the contemporary Left politics.
To describe his relationship with the Left parties. Lalu described the Left's attitude towards UPA with the following song: Tum agar mujhko na chaho to koi baat nahin , tum kisi aur ko chahogi to mushqil hogi from the old Raj Kapoor hit.
Lalu's Dubsmash attack on Modi
In a Dubsmash video posted on Twitter in 2019, Lalu Prasad was seen lip-syncing to lines from an election speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
The RJD chief mimicked Modi’s famous promises, including ‘Achche din aane wale hain‘, and ‘Hindustan ke ek ek gareeb admi ko mufat main Rs 15-20 lakh yunhi mil jayega‘ (Every poor person in India will get Rs 15-20 lakh for free).
He ended the video with a pointed remark, ‘yeh jumla hai‘ (It is a false promise).
Shadowed by controversies throughout his political career, Lalu Prasad Yadav has still managed to hold on to his trademark humour even in the face of turmoil. And for anyone familiar with Indian politics, there’s little doubt that only a few can match Lalu’s sharp wit.
