Lalu Prasad Yadav faces Modi’s fire

Lalu Prasad Yadav, the crucial partner of Nitish Kumar in Bihar’s Mahagatbandhan, and a vocal leader calling for Opposition unity has been targeted on corruption charges and his family questioned by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate this week, in a move seen as a strategy by the ruling BJP to break Opposition unity.

It is not coincidence that two leaders who are similar in their strong opposition to PM Modi’s brand of politics are similarly singled out. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose office was raided and his principal secretary, Rajendra Kumar, suspended from service.

At the outset, let us not be seen as supporting corruption. In our country we have no dearth of corrupt politicians. Though the ruling government recently advertised its 3 year tenure as free from corruption, we know that this can never be the case. What happened to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh?

Lalu- the uniter of opposition

As a politician who has been convicted in the fodder scam, it was easy to accuse him of further corrupt practices. But the timing is very important. Lalu Yadav had recently announced his plan to organise a massive Opposition rally in August. The two principal Opposition leaders of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, chose to forget their past bickering to declare they would attend Lalu’s rally. Lalu was the glue who could seal alliances in the opposition and thus was a serious threat to BJP and Modi in coming 2016 elections. No wonder he was singled out.