Laloo, Harvard and tale of much ado about ….
It looks like if Indian media has got any fixation then it got to be present railways minister Lalu prasad Yadav, whose railway turnaround has been making much news these days. And in the latest turn of events, a main story on Mr Yadav delivering lectures to students of Harvards and Wharton seems to be occupying center stage. And no channel left any stone unturned to prove how whole world has been mesmerized by impressive performance put up by Lalu Prasad Yadav where despite his rustic ways and without much management education, he has been able to turn a loss making behemoth into a profitable one. And as they say proof of pudding is visible and everybody from our desi IIM Ahmedabad to Wharton and Harvards are queuing up to hear Lalu Yada ( Times of India even went one step ahead and coined a word Barton to rhyme Wharton with bihari dialect so as to amuse its convent educated readers) .
However while making heaps of praise what many are forgetting that railway has been inching towards better days since 1998 when lot of steps like more focus on containers, better freight management, unifying gauge program, electrification of tracks, and a continued 8% plus GDP growth have been pushing railways to better economies of scale and profitability. Further all this turn around is not a question of just 3 years of Lalu but years of right planning, better execution and right timing which is put in place by a team of efficient technocrats.
However same set of journalists seems to have conveniently forgotten the fact that same Lalu Rabri rule has pushed Bihar into a dark abyss of lawlessness from which Bihar is yet to get out. During their 15 years rule, Bihar just went back 100 years in growth as no money was put into development and just family rule was unleashed in form of Sadhu yadav, Rabri Devi and other family members. Bihar was the only state which was never able to spend allocated money on development and at one point of time expenditure by Tats on upkeep of Jamshedpur was 3 times more what State govt of Bihar used to spend on whole Bihar. Now Lalu has dismissed Bihar saying there is no potential there and he has chosen to forget that once this mineral and industry rich Jharkhand was part of Bihar only. So how come somebody who just killed a state for 15 years suddenly turned around a railways in flat two years ???
Well answers are all there but probably a rustic minister turning around a corporation makes interesting news and gets more eyeballs than some regular news as failing and corrupt politicians is a cliché and no channel has time for cliché.
It looks like if Indian media has got any fixation then it got to be present railways minister Lalu prasad Yadav, whose railway turnaround has been making much news these days. And in the latest turn of events, a main story on Mr Yadav delivering lectures to students of Harvards and Wharton seems to be occupying center stage. And no channel left any stone unturned to prove how whole world has been mesmerized by impressive performance put up by Lalu Prasad Yadav where despite his rustic ways and without much management education, he has been able to turn a loss making behemoth into a profitable one. And as they say proof of pudding is visible and everybody from our desi IIM Ahmedabad to Wharton and Harvards are queuing up to hear Lalu Yada ( Times of India even went one step ahead and coined a word Barton to rhyme Wharton with bihari dialect so as to amuse its convent educated readers) .
However while making heaps of praise what many are forgetting that railway has been inching towards better days since 1998 when lot of steps like more focus on containers, better freight management, unifying gauge program, electrification of tracks, and a continued 8% plus GDP growth have been pushing railways to better economies of scale and profitability. Further all this turn around is not a question of just 3 years of Lalu but years of right planning, better execution and right timing which is put in place by a team of efficient technocrats.
However same set of journalists seems to have conveniently forgotten the fact that same Lalu Rabri rule has pushed Bihar into a dark abyss of lawlessness from which Bihar is yet to get out. During their 15 years rule, Bihar just went back 100 years in growth as no money was put into development and just family rule was unleashed in form of Sadhu yadav, Rabri Devi and other family members. Bihar was the only state which was never able to spend allocated money on development and at one point of time expenditure by Tats on upkeep of Jamshedpur was 3 times more what State govt of Bihar used to spend on whole Bihar. Now Lalu has dismissed Bihar saying there is no potential there and he has chosen to forget that once this mineral and industry rich Jharkhand was part of Bihar only. So how come somebody who just killed a state for 15 years suddenly turned around a railways in flat two years ???
Well answers are all there but probably a rustic minister turning around a corporation makes interesting news and gets more eyeballs than some regular news as failing and corrupt politicians is a cliché and no channel has time for cliché.
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