Lalu's style on top of substance

In his working style, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is a big-picture man. He doesn't think he should delve into detail: he would prefer to focus on the over-all impact of his decisions and actions.

This was in evidence when he presented the Railway Budget 2007-08 to Parliament, when he did everything to drive home the image of a minister successfully leading his department and giving fresh momentum to India's largest economic entity.

The attention-grabber was when, in an initial burst of energy, he announced with a roar that the Indian Railways had made a cash profit of Rs 20,000 crore.

His confidence in the numbers that he was presenting was matched by audacious asides to the opposition ("belt up"; "you are all anti-poor"; "don't dare use abusive language"... etc).

Many members found it hard to hear what he was saying with regard to stepped up investment plans, amidst a continuous din from the opposition over the issue of Ottavio Quattrochi.

Last year, the railways adopted a proposal to upgrade passengers from a lower to higher class of travel.

Prasad heard his team out patiently, ordered that the scheme be tried out on the pilot basis to assess if the railways could take the hit "" and implemented it, giving passengers the sense that upward mobility was possible.

In this Budget, too, such symbolic interventions are in place. Care has been taken to make life a little more comfortable for the poor, who usually travel in unreserved coaches.

"For years we have been having planks for unreserved compartments. After years we have decided to have a two-inch foam mattress padding.... And don't worry, we will fix it in a way that it can't be dug out", Prasad said.

This approach informs the decision to have special coaches for milkmen and other vendors. These are meaningless gestures among the large numbers in the budget, but they could be made to mean something when the elections roll by.

The healthy numbers in the railway budget are not the only thing bolstering Prasad's confidence. Having been acquitted on the charge of owning assets disproportionate to his income, the related charges against him in the fodder scam case have all but fallen through.

Since then, Lalu Prasad has taken to speaking to reporters in Patna in English"" though his disdain for the English-language press is well known. This budget, coming on top of earlier good performances, can only add to his confidence.