There is a visible change in Laloo Prasad Yadav since he became the railway minister and moved to Delhi from Patna. And that is not only confined to new tastes like tea with lemon instead of milk, or a penchant for coloured kurtas with a Fab India touch rather than the starched white ones straight out of a dhobi ghat. The change is noticeable on two fronts: technology and politics. Laloo's new found inclination towards fast trains and cybercafes has changed his entire attitude towards politics. From loud raillas and massive rallies Laloo has hitched on to courts and the CBI. With the official resources of the Rail Bhavan at his disposal, he has begun targeting political opponents. This is quintessentially a different Laloo. Not one who is merely confined to symbolic changes such as kullarhs and khadis. His ends remain the same but the means have changed. The BJP continues to be Laloo's enemy numero uno, but he is one up on them by stealing the instruments used by them against him in the past.

PICTURE SPEAK

COMPUTER SAVVY: Laloo uses the Net to dig dirt against his rivals

Remember that in an unprecedented decision, Upendra Biswas, the joint secretary of the CBI posted at Patna, had summoned the army to arrest Laloo during the investigations in the fodder scam. The BJP had justified Biswas' controversial actions. Moreover, the NDA had made full use of legal instruments such as courts to hit out at Laloo. It even temporarily imposed President's rule in Bihar. The initial breaks in the fodder scam were in the form of public-interest litigations initiated by opposition leaders. The probe into Laloo's involvement in the fodder scam yielded little evidence. But all along the NDA in Bihar acted as cheerleaders politicising the case.

In an ironic 180 degree twist of fortune, it is Laloo today who is taking recourse to the law and courts to hit back at his arch rivals. Laloo procured cabinet approval for the setting up of a high-level committee to probe the February 2002 fire in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in Gujarat. While ordering the fresh probe on Godhra, Laloo targeted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi but instead got embroiled in a war of words with BJP Vice-President Sushil Modi. A document released by Sushil states that Laloo called up M.S. Dahiya, assistant director, Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhinagar, to discuss the report Dahiya had submitted to the court. This and Laloo's attempts to call a key witness to discuss the details of the official inquiry are, according to Sushil Modi, "sinister attempts to influence the probe". The BJP has demanded that the Nanavati Commission must now summon Laloo. "But how did the Bihari Modi get hold of official documents meant for Narendra Modi?" fumes Laloo.

In another move, Laloo has called upon the Liberhan Commission to summon two former Time magazine journalists, Jeff Penberthy and Anita Pratap, who were eyewitnesses to the Babri Masjid demolition to testify on the role played by BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Uma Bharati. Furthermore, thanks to the Internet, Laloo has even managed to dig up some dirt against Advani in a forgotten case. Laloo alleges that Advani is an "international absconder'' in a case in Pakistan related to a conspiracy to murder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Laloo has also hit back at his predecessor Nitish Kumar by reopening the CBI inquiry into a Rs 200 crore sleeper supply contract. The investigations have been suitably timed to generate controversy five months before the Bihar assembly elections.

Another opponent Laloo has targeted is former finance minister Yashwant Sinha against whom he has opened a 26-year-old mustard oil scam case. Laloo has also ordered a probe against former Gujarat governor and BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra in a tax relief case involving a Prabhat Zarda factory in Bihar when Mishra was the finance minister in the Karpoori Thakur government. These attacks against NDA leaders are also a signal to the 11 per cent minority voters.

SETTLING SCORES FROM RAIL BHAVAN

L.K. ADVANI: Laloo called upon the Liberhan Commission to summon two former Time magazine journalists who were eyewitnesses to the Babri Masjid demolition to testify on the role played by Advani and Uma Bharati. YASHWANT SINHA: Laloo has opened a 26-year-old mustard oil scam in which Sinha, as principal secretary to former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, is alleged to have pressurised the state government to purchase substandard oil. NITISH KUMAR: The railway minister has asked the CBI to inquire into a Rs 200 crore sleeper supply contract given to a select group of manufacturers by his predecessor Kumar in contravention of established Railway procedures. NARENDRA MODI: Laloo got cabinet clearance for the setting up of a committee headed by a former judge, U.C. Bannerjee, to probe the February 2002 fire in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in Gujarat in which 58 people were killed.

The change in Laloo's political style has coincided with his sudden passion for technology. Leaving his romance for bullock carts, rickshaws and elephants (he climbed one after coming out of Beur jail) far behind, Laloo is in love with bullet trains these days, especially those made by the Japanese with magnetic levitation. Barely six months ago Laloo would rail at any mention of computers. Today he surfs the Internet. He has promised that 51 stations will have cybercafes and moving trains broadband Internet.

The Railway Ministry has transformed Laloo into a modernist from a pastoralist. From mobilising the masses Laloo has moved on to Machiavellian manipulation. He is no more the boorish joker who girds up his loins at the drop of a hat. He is a sophisticated, urbane politician, cocky in the use of realpolitik, who subtly uses the law to hit out at rivals. Ironically, this change has been brought about by the style of attack adopted by his opponents. Will this change of tack bear fruit? Not if it remains merely symbolic. Unless his development track record in the Railways matches up to his new modernist rhetoric, the attacks against rivals might simply appear as vendetta.

LALOO'S VERBAL ANTICS
NATIONAL RIVALS: Advani (left) and Sinha "Advani is an international absconder, wanted in connection with a conspiracy to murder Mohammed Ali Jinnah."	OPPONENTS IN BIHAR: Sushil Modi (left) and Kumar "The BJP is a python which has swallowed saffron socialists such as Nitish Kumar. Once I beat it dead, they will tumble out desperately."