After pottery, poetry

The usually combatant Laloo tried to engage NDA members rather half-heartedly when they trooped out to keep up their boycott of ‘‘tainted ministers’’.

‘‘Show your back, show your back, clear up fast,’’ he yelled at NDA members. They retaliated. Chandrakant Khaire and Prakash Paranjpe of the Shiv Sena asked: ‘‘Why us? Tell the Congress, which has turned its back on you.’’ Not even Laloo challenged this statement.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee told NDA members to walk out quietly and to the staff, said: ‘‘Take down their names so that I suspend them.’’ The member shouted back: ‘‘Prakash Paranjpe.’’

Through Laloo’s 105-minute speech, his trademark digs at NDA and rustic humour were missing. He was on to something else — poetry. Referring to the financial challenges, Laloo said: ‘‘Uthna hai aur bhi oopar, hain oonchaiyan pukaarti, hai apaar kshamatayen, ashayen tumhe niharti (We have to rise higher, for the heights beckon us, unlimited capacities and expectations are looking upon you).’’ It drew a rather muted applause.

There was more poetry later. Announcing his decision not to increase passenger fares, Laloo quoted a couplet from a poem by Nagarjuna: ‘‘Jaanlo bhaiya, gareebon ki ek hoti jaat, usi ke hukum se, hilenge ek ek paat (Let it be known brother, all poor belong to the same caste, everything will move at their bidding).’’