Railways dish up Laloo a 'blenderless' meal

Cooks on board the railways minister's special train were given a crash course in old fashioned masala cooking when Laloo Prasad Yadav got on board for his journey from Delhi to Patna.

The minister, it seems wanted a "blenderless" meal, i.e, hand ground ingredients only for Yadav.

Those who remember Yadav from his youth will not recognise the menu that the railways were asked to keep ready for the minister.

Gone were the kebab's and the shrimp stew and rice that former Prime Minister VP Singh used to praise Yadav for; in its place, Yadav had asked for sattu and matha (buttermilk).

It seems that the minister, earlier famous for his down home non-vegetarian cooking, especially shrimps and prawns, has turned completely vegetarian. Yadav is said to be suffering from diabetes and has been asked to stay off rich and fatty foods.

The minister, is determined though, that the lack of non-vegetarian food does not mean that his tongue is short-changed of taste.

According to sources, while the dishes required by the minister were simple stuff like chappattis, rice, vegetables and dals, especially arhar dal, the stipulation was that the masalas for all the dishes be freshly ground by the railwy staff on board the train.

"Masalas were not to be the mill-ground variety, they were to be freshly prepared just before the actual cooking was to take place," said a railway official. Yadav, in true peasent style, believes that the aroma of Indian spices gets diluted if it is not ground by hand. Railway pantry staff, though taken aback at first, were relieved that the stipulation was only for the minister's food, and that the rest of his entourage could be served with "regular" spices.

While Yadav is bringing his own style into the rail ministry he and his predecessor, the more formal Nitish Kumar have one thing in common"" their race to overload Bihar with as many railway goodies as possible.

Railway sources confirm that within three days of joining the ministry, Yadav ordered that the Sonepur College and the Jamalpur Railway Institute be upgraded.

He gave orders for improving the seating arrangement at Patna station, and build an EMU shed in Jhajha. Not just that, Railway Police Force jawans have been posted in Mokama, Barh and Bariah districts. Railway officials were told to speed up work in the Bihar stretch.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt along with a team of minority community members from Godhra, visited the railway minister yesterday. The delegation wanted Yadav probe the Godhra carnage.

According to the delegation, the Gujarat government had been harassing and wrongly blaming Muslims for the crime.

They pointed out that although the government claimed that 58 people had lost their lives in the incident, a complete reservation list of bogie number 26 had not been made public.

Out of the 58 victims, families of only 14 came forward to claim the Rs 4 lakh compensation given by the Railways. According to the Railways spokesperon, the delegation told the minister that they had heard of his interest in the Godhra investigation and appealed to him for justice.

Yadav in turn expressed his inability to investigate anyting more than the railways culpability in the matter. "Whatever involves the railways will be looked into," he said.

He asked the delegation to look to the home minister for help in the matter. According to reports, Laloo Yadav had asked senior railway officials for the Godhra investigation file as soon as he took over as the Union railways minister.

The matter has not been revived after that. Bhatt, it is said had arranged the meeting due to his long standing association with Yadav.