He may be the quintessentially rustic politician whose 15-year-rule in Bihar as chief minister was dubbed by critics as 'jungle raj' but RJD president Lalu Prasad is set for an image makeover when he dons the role of lecturer at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad next month.The turnaround in the financial health of Indian Railways, with Prasad in charge, has been a subject of discussion in IIMs and Prasad is already being looked upon as a 'management guru'.On September 18 this year, Prasad would be delivering a lecture to management students and the faculty at IIM-A, explaining finer points of the Indian Railways "turnaround", which earned a profit of Rs 15,000 crore in 2005-06.The invitation to deliver a lecture came after IIM Ahmedabad Professor G Raghuram conducted a detailed study on the Railways "turnaround" and decided to introduce the case study in its curriculum.In the process, it has become the second largest PSU profit-earner after ONGC. Prasad has surprised many by emerging as one of the top performing ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet.So what Prasad has done to the Indian Railways which his predecessors could not? The answer lies in his own down-to- earth attitude and rustic wisdom.Prasad puts it in his inimitable style: "My mother always told me not to handle a buffalo by its tail but always catch it by its horns. And I have used that lesson in everything in my life, including the Railways".
