Lalu’s tryst with the law

The timing could not have been more curious. On the very day the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and their allies sealed their seat-sharing deal for the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections, a Delhi court framed charges of corruption and conspiracy against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, and son Tejashwi Yadav, That coincidence alone raises eyebrows, It is difficult to believe that this case—rooted in allegations made nearly two decades ago—has reached this stage now by mere happenstance. The case concerns the award of contracts for two IRCTC hotels during Lalu’s tenure as railway minister between 2004 and 2009. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claims that the contracts were granted in exchange for three acres of land allegedly received by Lalu’s family through a be-nami company. The CBI registered the case in 2017, when the political climate had already turned hostile for the RJD. Eight years later, the charges are being framed—just as Bihar’s electoral battle heats up and Te-jashwi Yadav emerges as the Opposition’s chief ministerial face.

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Lalu's time as railway minister had, in fact, earned him national and international acclaim. He had transformed the railways from a loss-making enterprise into a model of turnaround management, drawing praise even from institutions like Harvard. His innovations, such as automatic berth upgrades and better utilisation of rolling stock, became case studies in governance. The CBI probe, therefore, was not triggered by any glaring irregularity, but by political winds that were turning against him