The dutiful wife

So when it came to choosing a successor, the so-called messiah of the poor could not find anyone from among the teeming millions of the Sta...

So when it came to choosing a successor, the so-called messiah of the poor could not find anyone from among the teeming millions of the State but his better half. It is a measure of Laloo Prasad Yadav8217;s confidence in the legislators who have been propping him up all these years that he could not find anyone from among them to succeed him. It is significant that Laloo resigned only when he was certain that his game was up. His resignation would have carried conviction if it had followed the CBI chargesheet in the fodder scam. It is the first time a beleaguered Chief Minister has found such a stratagem to outwit public opinion. But then, it conforms to what he has been doing all these months only to save his chair. What a tragedy that a leader who claimed to represent the poor found nothing amiss in splitting his own party and even agreeing to bifurcate the state only to save his position. For him, his wife too has become a tool like the party he heads to subserve his selfish interest. Not that Rabri Devi is new to the limelight. She was recently in the news when she filed her income tax returns under duress, showing an astronomical income from such humble occupations as selling milk. Obviously, she put her signature, nay thumb impression, on the dotted line as suggested by her husband, the Chief Minister. To take his orders 8212; that is exactly what she has learnt all her life.

Once again Rabri Devi has been asked to play a similar role. She has to keep the seat of Chief Minister warm till Laloo is able to reoccupy it once his present problems are over. Like the ever-dutiful wife, Rabri Devi cannot but shoulder the responsibility entrusted to her by her husband. Why should it matter to her that she is not an elected representative, has no administrative experience and is ill-equipped to hold the office of Chief Minister? Did not MGR8217;s little-known wife Janaki succeed him as Chief Minister? It is a different matter that she was thrown out of power by the voters at the first available opportunity. Unlike Janaki, Rabri Devi does not have to bother about elections. She is confident that her husband, even if he is behind bars, will take care of such matters.

In any case, Laloo could not have worked out a better arrangement to fulfil his prophecy that he will rule even from the jail. Anyone else in the post could have been problematic because politicians, however faceless they may be, tend to acquire a face of their own once they occupy such positions of power. It is for this very reason that Kamal Nath chose his wife when he wanted a dummy candidate in Chhindwara. In the case of Laloo, the risk was greater, for it involved the chief ministership of the State. Small wonder that he turned down suggestions of nominating either his brother-in-law or Union Minister Kanti Singh as his successor. He knew that there was no guarantee that they would allow him to rule from jail, if that indeed was his fate. With prisoners like the fodder scamsters already enjoying the facility of cellphones in their cells in Beur jail, it should not at all be difficult for Laloo to control the destiny of Bihar, as he promised, from jail. That is the advantage of having a dutiful wife. It also shows that the whole political system is unable to tackle such a phenomenon as Laloo Prasad Yadav.