In Lalu vs BJP, minister comes out a winner

As soon as Lalu rose to present the budget at noon, the BJP’s Ananth Kumar signalled party MPs to enter the well of the House and raise slogans on the Quattrocchi issue. Other MPs of other NDA constituents merely stood at their designated seats, the BJP MPs kept up slogans such as, “Duniya bhar mein shor hai, Quattrocchi mama chor hai.”

For a while Samajwadi Party MPs too joined in. But they then chose to walk out. Joining them were MPs from the Telugu Desam Party.

The BJP kept up the slogan-shouting, and its leaders later admitted that the calculation was that the Budget would be placed on the table of the House and taken as read. This may have worked in the case of some other minister, but Lalu Yadav wasn’t about to give in.

He began with a flourish. “Bees hazaar crore rupaiya ka munafa hai,” he shouted, and made sure he was heard loud and clear even in the distant press gallery. And he read on and on, introducing jibes at the BJP, and at one point saying, “Ham paanch bajey tak padhenge,” and at another taunting the noise-makers with, “Thoda sa rest ley lo.”

Some of them actually did: a few backbenchers quietly slipped away, and a couple of MPs even dozed off.

At 12:45 p.m. the protest threatened to peter out in the face of Lalu’s steamroller performance, but the BJP’s Kiran Maheshwari — if Lalu was the star of the show, clearly she was the candidate for the special jury award — took over.

The sprightly, bejewelled MP from Rajasthan kept raising new slogans and egging on her colleagues. She appeared the first to realise that the opposition protest was turning into a flop show: not only was Lalu supremely unaffected by the sloganeering but chief target Sonia Gandhi too was smiling and cheering the Railway Minister, sometimes thumping the desk with both hands.

At Maheshwari’s behest, the BJP contingent directly attacked the Gandhi family with “Quattrochhi kaun hai? Sonia ka bhai hai!” and “Rahul ka mama, Sonia ka bhai, Quattrocchi ne rishwat khayee!”

This had the desired effect. Several Congress MPs stood up and began shouting back, raising slogans against Advani. Apart from Congressmen, Lalu’s RJD ministerial colleague Raghuvansh Prasad also took great offence. “Gaali dene ka ijaazat hain kya?” he thundered.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi ran up and down the aisles, pleading with fellow MPs not to enter the well of the House. But tempers ran high and at one point even RJD storm-trooper Sadhu Yadav was seen restraining Congress members from lunging towards the BJP.

Having succeeded in riling the Congress benches by attacking Sonia and Rahul, the BJP MPs regained their combative spirit. And so did their counterparts in the Congress.

But just as things threatened to get ugly, Lalu’s famed sense of timing came to the rescue. Concluding his speech with the same flourish with which he began, he reeled out all the fare concessions on offer: “First AC mein kami, second AC mein kami, second class mein kami.”

Sonia Gandhi, whose expression had changed from initial amusement to anger, was all smiles again. As soon as Lalu’s speech ended, the House was adjourned for the day — leaving no scope for the hotheads to prolong hostilities.