Beware of a steam engine named Lalu Prasad Yadav. It follows no signals of restraint. It chooses its own tracks and changes course at will. It is desperate, dangerous, reckless, and nothing remains sacred on its path. Its latest victims are constitutional propriety and cabinet responsibility.

So, what is it about Lalu Prasad, who has the licence to steamroll? In the Union Cabinet, the minister for railways alone seems to have the mandate to lambast even constitutional authorities, as if he is an autonomous institution, answerable to none. The latest victim of his free speech is the Election Commission (EC). He has called for the resignation of Election Commissioners B.B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswamy in the wake of a senior bureaucrat's wild accusations against them.

PICTURE SPEAK

BAD LOSER: Lalu has still not come to terms with losing power in Bihar

L.V. Saptarishi, a special observer in Bihar during the last general elections and currently the director-general of the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), in a letter to Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj questioned the countermanding of the election in the Chhapra Lok Sabha constituency, where Lalu was the candidate. There was nothing in his report that justified the countermanding, he said, and then he went on to accuse the two commissioners of casteism. An IAS officer writing to a cabinet minister to question the decision of a constitutional authority itself is a violation of administrative norms. This IAS officer of the 1969 West Bengal cadre went further. In a press conference, he gave graphic details of how Tandon (the incoming chief election commissioner) and Gopalaswamy denigrated the Yadav community in his presence.

Lalu, who is yet to come to terms with the loss of Bihar, needed no more vindication. The "casteist" commissioners should go and the EC should be reconstituted, he demanded. He also said the countermanding was done under pressure from the then deputy prime minister L. K. Advani. "Irresponsible talk," the BJP president reacted. This time around, the RJD boss did not have any backers. Surprisingly, his party colleague and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (who, ironically or coincidentally, happens to be the boss of Saptarishi) refused to endorse Lalu. "Lalu Prasad Yadav should have consulted me before going to the press with (Saptarishi's) letter. If not me, at least he should have consulted UPA allies before taking this step," he said.

LALU'S WAYS

RUNNING FEUD: His anti-EC tirade has a history. Twice in the past the Bihar Assembly admitted privilege motions against former CEC T.N. Seshan. SCORING POINTS: He politically exploited the Banerjee report on Godhra. UNDER SIEGE: Old ghosts like the fodder scam are returning to haunt him.

The prime minister too didn't give in to Lalu's tantrum. His defence of the EC was, in a way, an indirect indictment of the railway minister. "It is important that the entire nation understands the importance of constitutional institutions like the Election Commission," Manmohan Singh told reporters while returning from Moscow. It is also important that the ruling UPA understands the moods and manners of Lalu. No matter how unreasonable or irresponsible or "tainted" he is, Lalu has to be indulged for the sake of the coalition. RJD MPs met the prime minister on May 11 but he stuck to his stand on maintaining constitutional sanctity. Lalu, on his part, didn't change his demand either. Anyway, Lalu got away, and Saptarishi, deservingly, earned a show-cause notice from the Government.

This bureaucrat, in his own way, is colourful enough to be an ally of Lalu. Sanskrit scholar, Shankaracharya devotee, Carnatic music aficionado, Lalgudi Vaidhyanatha Iyer Saptarishi was a great admirer of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Three years ago, at a function in Delhi to felicitate the Kanchi Shankaracharya, he, speaking in Sanskrit, compared Vajpayee to Adi Shankara. Then he touched the then prime minister's feet. He is known for defying his seniors and ingratiating himself to political masters. Ironically, when the NDA government wanted to send him back to West Bengal, it was outgoing Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy who came to his rescue and made him a special observer. It was only recently that Saptarishi, due to retire on July 31, was recommended by the capart general body for a three-year term as director-general.

PICTURE SPEAK

"N. Gopalaswamy said we would have to take some drastic steps against Lalu Prasad Yadav." L.V. SAPTARISHI DIRECTOR-GENERAL, CAPART

Lalu, though, is not in the danger of being contained by allies. His war with the EC has a history. Before the 1995 Bihar assembly elections, he had a verbal spat with the then chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan. Lalu called him an Alsatian, a BJP agent and a part of a "Brahminical conspiracy". Still, he didn't demand Seshan's removal. Though twice, in '91 and '92, the Bihar Assembly admitted a privilege motion against Seshan.

Lalu Unbound is a repudiation of ministerial dignity and responsibility. The fallen king of Pataliputra is a bad loser. When he was the supreme arbiter of Bihar, the shenanigans of the kitsch-meister were a provincial road show, beyond the national glare. Now, the script is being played out on the national stage. Lalu may be "the prime minister of railways" (that is how he described himself in the talk show Seedhi Baat in Aaj Tak), but he is just one of the cabinet ministers. He has not adjusted to this reality. Before the charges against the election commissioners, it was the U.C. Banerjee report on Godhra, released during the last Bihar assembly election campaign, that he used to settle scores with the BJP. Today, old ghosts like the fodder scam (despite the small reprieve from the Supreme Court) are coming back to haunt him. Cabinet Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav makes the UPA Government's war against its predecessor's "crimes" a big joke. And his desperation has become a national embarrassment.

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