Lalu makes light of House boycott

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, entered the Lok Sabha at 5 minutes to noon, to a half empty House.

Although Prasad appeared self-assured, even asking Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan to pass him his reading glasses, the absent Opposition was very much on his mind.

He continuously referred to the Opposition benches in his 110-minute-long speech, one of the longest rail budget speeches.

At one point, he waved at the empty benches saying those who had no interest in the country were absent and should not claim sala-ry for not attending the House. "It is our turn to rule," he said.

Referring to Maneka Gandhi's remark that kulhars would cause soil erosion, Yadav taunted the BJP MP by saying pollution from chimneys was a bigger issue. "Being in power is not everything, one must learn from Sonia Gandhi, who gave up the PM's chair," he said.

Though this drew applause the treasury benches, Gandhi did not appear to be happy to be referred to along with her sister-in-law.

Yadav also drew frowns from Gandhi when he repeatedly referred to her first and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later for support while drafting the budget document. With the UPA government trying to project that Gandhi had left Singh strictly on his own to run the government, these references annoyed her.

The only time Prasad appeared to look uncomfortable was while pronouncing the names of various south Indian towns and stations, to be connected by 32 new trains. The names of stations like Srikakulam and Nagrcoil tripped uneasily off Prasad's tongue, but he made up for it by valiantly continuing to speak.

"I know many states feel that they have been ignored in previous budgets, I hope I have redressed the wrong," he said referring to his predecessor Nitish Kumar.

And while the Opposition tore into his budget, Prasad got support from home. Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, also his wife, termed it the "best rail budget ever presented".

With kudos like that from his wife, Prasad can well afford to ignore his critics.