Fodder scam worse than 2002 riots? In defence of Lalu Yadav

I see a lot of prejudice masquerading as political criticism. They strongly believe that Lalu Yadav will indeed take Bihar back to "Jungle Raj". They have been talking about how Nitish will have to rein in Lalu.

The RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha makes a lot of sense. He has been talking about a couple of things that all the critics of Lalu Yadav will do well to consider:

"Aap Lalu Yadav ji ko bhi ek dynamic entity ke roop mein dekhiye na. Vyakti aur paristithi donon gatimaan cheez hai."

"Humne kabhi perception management jaise vishayon par dhyaan nahin diya. Humko gali galoch milti rahi, humari kshamatavardan ko kam karke bataya. Hum unka pratikaar nahin kar paye."

To paraphrase Mr Jha from what he said at the launch of Sankashran Thakur's The Brothers Bihari: "Lalu Yadav has never had the luxury of controlling or shaping his image in the media. He has always been portrayed as if he is caught in a time warp and incapable of any change or evolution."

And that to me also sounds very similar to the racist rationale of imperialism that the natives are incapable of governing themselves. Social Darwinism.

Lalu, like anybody else, is a product of his times. Things have changed in Bihar as well as India. We can't look at him from the same prism.

Talking about second chances. I don't even know how to compare the fodder scam with 2002 riots. Doodh ka dhula koi nahin hai.

(Taken from P Donthi's Facebook post.)