Bridging a gulf between two rapidly separating islands, as it were.
For urban India, particularly cash-obsessed cities like Mumbai for whom life begins with the share price of a divided Reliance share price, and ends with badla, satta and wild speculation on the "The New India Story" penned by Goldman Sachs, research analysts, and even hard-core ignoramus punters, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been just a frivolous distraction, a comedy caper on a day when stock markets perhaps breached another spectacular high.
I doubt many are aware of his early years of political agitation as part of a student movement supporting the JP Total Revolution activities.
I remember being in Patna's St Michael's School briefly during that socially dynamic period, and Lalu's name as a future heavy-weight prospect had already unsettled the then CM Jagannath Mishra.
Whatever his legendary fallibilities (and besides the animal husbandry scam and foisting of the world's first house-wife into an instant-Chief Minister, there are many), but Lalu's single biggest achievement was that he has personally never advocated bloodshed politics.
No Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal for him. No communal politics, even when the BJP Rath-yatra was cruising with the luxurious cockiness of a juggernaut.
Yes, there have been some serious caste-related killings at sporadic intervals, but Lalu has a personal abhorrence for violent solution finding.
I also believe that Sonia Gandhi trusts him much more than some of her own questionable Congressmen.
Bihar is a complex Soduku, a viciously- intertwined state comprising of a deadly caste-divide and political chinks, pockets of hard-core Naxal concentration, and a historical conflict between feudal landlords and depraved marginal farmers.
Much as we castigate Lalu for Bihar being carved into "one big backward constituency", languishing like a dark swampy terrain even as neighbouring lands prosper, the truth is that the "turnaround "for a state like Bihar cannot be like that of a corporate defunct company.
It is a basket case, not just a BIFR company.
Nitish Kumar, for all his noble intentions, understands the slippery terrain he is now on.
It is not enough to just appoint Prakash Jha, avid filmmaker, as a Brand Ambassador for Bihar (just because his Gangajal and Apharan created a wave of popular national discontent with Lalu's Bihar), do TV commercials and road shows to attract FDI, change social equations, and usher in agricultural growth and industrial prosperity in Bihar.
A lot needs to be done, but we can discuss that in encyclopedic detail at another time.
Lalu Yadav lecturing the outstanding talent of IIM, Ahmedabad and overwhelming the academic community is significant from several angles, not just a unique media event.
Firstly, it is a belated recognition that Lalu Yadav is not just a country bumpkin with a parochial political agenda and love for Hema Malini's cheeks. Secondly, the Railways have truly improved remarkably (so far), and Lalu is being deservingly credited.
And IIM, Ahmedabd must be congratulated for giving him a prestigious platform to get the accolades he has richly earned.
But most importantly, it signals the new Indian economic reality, that you do not need just high-pedigree degrees from the Ivy League to be a revolutionary performer.
I promise you that Laluji has not read Mark McCormack's classic 'What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School'. They don't, because they simply can't.
For several Indian CEO's who market India at global investment jamborees in dark grey-suits with religious regularity and come-back with photos with Shiamak Davar, but whose business travel in India is restricted to J Class jet-setting between New Delhi (for periodic lobbying) and Mumbai, and whose knowledge of India is somewhat cramped to reading Morgan Stanley's or EIU's India Report, I strongly recommend a slight diversion.
Instead of Davos next time, they should just take a de tour to Darbhanga.
The real India, alas, dwells there. About the AuthorSanjay Jha Sanjay Jha is a hard-core “Congressi” largely on account of being enchanted by the incredible brilliance of the Gandhi-Nehru mystique, its array of in...Read Morefirst published:September 19, 2006, 12:54 ISTlast updated:September 19, 2006, 12:54 IST
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For a lot of us Indians, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been a Cartoon Network Channel unto himself, without any Walt Disney contribution. But yesterday, as with his characteristic gusto, back-of-the-dhoti calculations, and spontaneous charm he handled India's CEO-aspirants of the future, he has overnight become, perhaps unwittingly, the first rural brand ambassador of a modern India.
Bridging a gulf between two rapidly separating islands, as it were.
For urban India, particularly cash-obsessed cities like Mumbai for whom life begins with the share price of a divided Reliance share price, and ends with badla, satta and wild speculation on the "The New India Story" penned by Goldman Sachs, research analysts, and even hard-core ignoramus punters, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been just a frivolous distraction, a comedy caper on a day when stock markets perhaps breached another spectacular high.
I doubt many are aware of his early years of political agitation as part of a student movement supporting the JP Total Revolution activities.
I remember being in Patna's St Michael's School briefly during that socially dynamic period, and Lalu's name as a future heavy-weight prospect had already unsettled the then CM Jagannath Mishra.
Whatever his legendary fallibilities (and besides the animal husbandry scam and foisting of the world's first house-wife into an instant-Chief Minister, there are many), but Lalu's single biggest achievement was that he has personally never advocated bloodshed politics.
No Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal for him. No communal politics, even when the BJP Rath-yatra was cruising with the luxurious cockiness of a juggernaut.
Yes, there have been some serious caste-related killings at sporadic intervals, but Lalu has a personal abhorrence for violent solution finding.
I also believe that Sonia Gandhi trusts him much more than some of her own questionable Congressmen.
Bihar is a complex Soduku, a viciously- intertwined state comprising of a deadly caste-divide and political chinks, pockets of hard-core Naxal concentration, and a historical conflict between feudal landlords and depraved marginal farmers.
Much as we castigate Lalu for Bihar being carved into "one big backward constituency", languishing like a dark swampy terrain even as neighbouring lands prosper, the truth is that the "turnaround "for a state like Bihar cannot be like that of a corporate defunct company.
It is a basket case, not just a BIFR company.
Nitish Kumar, for all his noble intentions, understands the slippery terrain he is now on.
It is not enough to just appoint Prakash Jha, avid filmmaker, as a Brand Ambassador for Bihar (just because his Gangajal and Apharan created a wave of popular national discontent with Lalu's Bihar), do TV commercials and road shows to attract FDI, change social equations, and usher in agricultural growth and industrial prosperity in Bihar.
A lot needs to be done, but we can discuss that in encyclopedic detail at another time.
Lalu Yadav lecturing the outstanding talent of IIM, Ahmedabad and overwhelming the academic community is significant from several angles, not just a unique media event.
Firstly, it is a belated recognition that Lalu Yadav is not just a country bumpkin with a parochial political agenda and love for Hema Malini's cheeks. Secondly, the Railways have truly improved remarkably (so far), and Lalu is being deservingly credited.
And IIM, Ahmedabd must be congratulated for giving him a prestigious platform to get the accolades he has richly earned.
But most importantly, it signals the new Indian economic reality, that you do not need just high-pedigree degrees from the Ivy League to be a revolutionary performer.
I promise you that Laluji has not read Mark McCormack's classic 'What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School'. They don't, because they simply can't.
For several Indian CEO's who market India at global investment jamborees in dark grey-suits with religious regularity and come-back with photos with Shiamak Davar, but whose business travel in India is restricted to J Class jet-setting between New Delhi (for periodic lobbying) and Mumbai, and whose knowledge of India is somewhat cramped to reading Morgan Stanley's or EIU's India Report, I strongly recommend a slight diversion.
Instead of Davos next time, they should just take a de tour to Darbhanga.
The real India, alas, dwells there.
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