Lalu gets Cabinet to discuss attack on his car

A train accident early Thursday morning that claimed more than 15 lives became a side story as Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's car was attacked allegedly by Sangh Parivar activists in Gujarat when he visited the accident site, leading to uproarious scenes in Parliament and a late night emergency Cabinet meeting.

In Samalaya near Vadodara, the Sabarmati Express collided with a goods train. The accident was caused, on the face of it, by an error of railway employees. When Prasad visited the site, activists of the Bajrang Dal shouted slogans and pelted stones on his car. He was not injured.

Prasad was accompanied by Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa, who represents the neighbouring Chhota Udepur constituency in the Lok Sabha. An angry Prasad told reporters, "The country does not belong to them. Such lawlessness must not be allowed. I would have come with protection had I known this is the way I would be treated".

The issue would have had no echo in Delhi had Prasad's car not been attacked. Law and order is a state subject and the railway minister saw the political opportunity the incident represented of presenting himself as a martyr who suffered a murderous assault for speaking up for minorities.

The Centre's options in dealing with such a situation are limited. It can, at best, issue a warning to the state government.

Prasad has a bone to pick with the Congress, which, he suspects, wants to marginalise him in Bihar. So this incident presented another chance for some competitive secularism.

Always quick to recognise an opportunity, slogan-shouting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) mem-bers stalled the post-lunch proceedings in Parliament, forcing adjournment of both Houses for the day, leading to protests from BJP benches. RJD members were demanding dismissal of the Narendra Modi government.

An attack on the cavalcade of a Cabinet minister is a serious matter and Prasad himself insisted that the government take note of it. Till mid-evening, it was not clear if the Cabinet meeting would be held but the government saw the political advantage of holding the meeting and Prasad, who was scheduled to go to Patna late tonight, returned from the airport.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice, first for 30 minutes and then till Monday by Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan. The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

In the Upper House, RJD members, supported by their Congress counterparts, created noisy scenes over what they termed as "pre-meditated conspiracy" against Prasad, who had gone to Samalaya in connection with a train accident.

In the Lok Sabha, repeated requests by the Speaker to restore calm went unheeded. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, who twice informed members that the government was ascertaining facts, also failed to pacify the agitated RJD members. Seeing that the members were in no mood to allow the proceedings to continue, Chatterjee adjourned the House for the day.

The Gujarat chief minister, who also visited the site and the hospitals, said, "The government has acted promptly and we have sent four of our ministers to the site to oversee the rescue and relief operations."