Aditi Phadnis: Surviving on an image

PLAIN POLITICS

Lalu Prasad has refashioned his state after himself, which helps explain his continuing popularity.

Lalu Prasad is proclaiming to friends that Rabri Devi will go down in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest serving woman chief minister of India.

He seems confident that with leaders like Shahabuddin and Taslimuddin by his side, and the steady empowerment of Muslims and Yadavs in Bihar, nothing can prevent the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from setting up shop to govern Bihar for a fourth successive term when the elections come round in February next year.

It is a question reporters have been asking themselves and each other for years now: what makes Lalu Prasad go? How can a state that is as chronically undergoverned as Bihar return him to power again and again? Why are the people of this state content with demanding so little of their leaders? Why has Bihar become the symbol of all that is hopeless and decrepit in India?

Last week, two events showed that you could get the man out of Bihar but you couldn't take Bihar out of the man. After a terrible train accident that was the result of pure apathy on the part of the Indian Railways, Lalu Prasad raved and ranted about how the event was "murder" and the people responsible for it would be charged with "culpable homicide".

(It does seem rather peculiar that a former chief minister and a current cabinet minister should not be able to differentiate between "murder" where there is intent and "homicide" where death is caused by accident. But then familiarity with law is not the Bihar leader's USP.)

But having said all that, instead of coming and telling Parliament how the event had taken place, he chose to push off for a public meeting in Jahanabad, Bihar, possibly under the impression that Parliament was Bihar assembly.

The other event was the uncharacteristically mild observation of Finance Minister P Chidambaram that Indian Railways ought to have projects that are more bankable.

While recognising the social responsibility of the railways, Chidambaram hinted that the organisation should not keep looking to government to bail it out. It sounded like a warning that Lalu Prasad had better look sharp because Indian Railways would not be allowed to go the way of Bihar.

It is to be devoutly hoped that it will not. Cronyism, caste and greed have destroyed Bihar, notwithstanding arguments forwarded by Prasad's lieutenants that Bihar's financial state was the result of persistent negligence by the central government.

In fiscal year 2000-2001, for example, plan assistance to Bihar ranked the lowest in the country at Rs 2,293 crore, about half the amount given to Andhra Pradesh.

These figures are trotted out to prove that Bihar has always been the victim of a central conspiracy. But figures and arguments are irrelevant in a state that appears so infatuated with its tallest leader that it doesn't seem to be able to find an alternative to him.

Maybe it is that Lalu understands the politics of that elusive thing called charisma and pitches expectations so low that this is enough to ensure he stays in the power politics loop.

A long time ago, when a top Janata Dal leader, who later became prime minister, contested the Rajya Sabha election from Bihar on the assurance of V P Singh that Lalu would get him elected from a state he knew nothing about, he went to Patna and met Lalu amid all his courtiers.

He wanted to know if there was anything he was required to do. Lalu politely told him to return to Delhi. The leader was not satisfied and returned to Patna the following week. He was getting a little anxious. Lalu once again told him to relax.

When he offered to help a third time, Lalu lost his temper. Some terrible things were said including a reference to the leader's beard that reminded Lalu, he said in a rage, of a billy-goat. This was Lalu's way of asserting his authority among his peer group. The leader waselected but never recovered from the encounter, not even when he became prime minister.

So is it authority and identity-assertion that shows up all the others as wimps and Lalu as the only true leader from the state? This is not the only way an image is created. One of Lalu's lieutenants said they went to great lengths to ensure Lalu was kept protected from the Page Three People (P3P).

"There is a lady from Mumbai" one of them said "who keeps trying to paste herself on Laluji, offering to raise money. We keep him away from all such people".

The key thing about Lalu seems to be his image and the perception of him as a leader. He speaks the right language and there is no gap between what he is and what he appears to be. And he knows the fundamental thing about politics: what to say to whom.

Consider the present spat between him and Ramvilas Paswan. He has taken the matter to the PM, but not on political grounds that a fellow cabinet minister is maligning him. No, he has raised the issue that he knows the PM will simply not countenance "" that a woman lawmaker should be insulted.

He has done everything a leader can be accused of doing. He has been to jail and continues to be on bail. Yadavs continue to be his favourite caste. Bihar is at the tail end of every index of development. Yet why does he keep on winning?

It is not just the Muslim-Yadav factor. It is not just that Ramvilas Paswan brought him dalit votes the last time around. Lalu Prasad has refashioned Bihar after his own image. And there is no leader around tall enough to challenge that.