Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Laloo Yadav: Future Prime Minister Of India






What are the possibilities?

There are 545 seats in the Lok Sabha. (Parliament of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) The chances of his party the Rashtriya Janata Dal getting half those seats on its own are nil. (Rashtriya Janata Dal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

List of political parties in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Political Resources in the Net - India I (Parties and Organizations)
Indian Political Parties,Party Profiles,Political Parties in India ...
Political parties of India
India - Political Parties
List of political parties in India: Information from Answers.com
India Election 2004 - Manifestos of Indian Political Parties

The second best option would be the emergence of a Third Front. All the non-Congress, non-BJP parties would come together and go at it. That coalition would best be formed before an election. Maybe such a Third Front will gain a majority. If it does not, maybe that Third Front will still be larger than the Congress, and will get the Congress to support it by default.

A likely scenario would be where the Third Front is larger than the Congress, and a Third Front-Congress coalition takes over power. That is Laloo's best shot. He sure is qualified. He represents what is the Arkansas of India, Bihar. He represents the oppressed castes and Muslims. That is progressive. He has been an excellent Railway Minister. He has more than proven himself.

What comes to mind is a 1996 scenario when Jyoti Basu had the option to become Prime Minister but his party unwisely refused. Laloo will never refuge. Make him the offer he can not refuse.

Even today the seat distributions are as follows:

Congress 145
BJP 138
Rest 260

Should not 260 lead 145? But that asks for the creation of a Third Front, and within that Third Front, Laloo will have to build a coalition that makes it the largest group within that Third Front.

Indian Imponderables
In The News

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Lalu enthralls Harvard and Wharton students Telugu Portal Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, one of India's most popular politicians, Wednesday held a 'class' for 130 students from Harvard and Wharton, outlining in Hindi how he scripted the success story of the country's loss-making railways. ..... The students and their seven professors were clearly spellbound ...... Lalu Prasad hold forth on a subject that has generated tremendous international interest, igniting requests from one country after another to explain how anyone could make the Indian Railways a profitable venture. ....... since childhood I was greatly inspired by Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of Indian railways who rightly understood that this forms the most important part of the country's infrastructure ...... One of the students told a group of journalists later that he was impressed by the minister's witticisms and charisma. ..... The railway ministry gave the students a royal reception, greeting each of them with a garland of marigold flowers and applying the customary Hindu 'tilak' on their forehead. They enjoyed every bit of it, with some among them who had been passed over demanding that the 'tilak' be applied on them. ...... Lalu Prasad greeted them all with warm handshakes as he strolled into the National Rail Museum, located at the edge of the tree-lined diplomatic enclave. Before the "class" began ....... the students, elated to hear about the "magical transformation" story of Indian Railways as an American student put it, conveyed to journalists what Lalu Prasad said - and how they felt. ........ We have come here to understand how he turned around the Indian Railways," said Kunark Singh, an Indian origin student from Harvard who is a native of Bihar. ....... "Indian students like me are happy to come here to attend this class with Lalu Yadav and understand how we can give back to the society," he added....... The students, some of the brightest in the world, bombarded the minister with questions wondering if the railways' dramatic turnaround can be sustained - besides touching upon a rail network that transports 14 million people daily, linking the length and breadth of India. ....... A Pakistani student asked Lalu Prasad if he wanted to be the prime minister of India. The minister, who was calling the students "bachcha log" (kids), replied: "Everyone wants to move up, I also do. But there's no hurry. Right now I am busy concentrating on my work." ....... An American student was curious how despite having been a villager his entire childhood, he can cast a spell on intellectuals. ...... Yastten, a Japanese student from Wharton, said: "I have heard about Indian Railways and its venerable minister. I am very happy to see him in person and listening to him was a great pleasure." ....... "When the responsibility of railways was given to me, it was in a state of bankruptcy," Lalu Prasad said, discussing the findings of the Rakesh Mohan Committee that had forecast that Indian Railways would go bankrupt soon......... "The railways which a few years back was not in a position to pay dividends to the government now boast of a cash surplus of more than Rs.130 billion ($2.8 billion) in a short span of 30 months. This would take a quantum leap to Rs.200 billion by the end of current fiscal," he said in his baritone, interspersed with his usual witticisms that made many of his interlocutors laugh politely even though many did not understand him. ........ Lalu Prasad informed the students: "Over the last 30 months, freight volumes have grown by 8-10 percent and similarly growth in passenger volumes has also been doubled. ....... "On the supply side, increase in axle load coupled with reduction in turnaround time of wagons from seven to five days has contributed to an incremental loading capacity of 170 million tones resulting in revenues of Rs.100 billion."
India minister cleared of charge BBC News, UK A court in India has acquitted railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav in a long-running corruption case. ... Mr Yadav was charged with amassing 4.6m rupees (more than $100,000) between 1990 and 1997 when he was the chief minister of Bihar state. ..... His wife, Rabri Devi, a former chief minister of Bihar, was also found not guilty by the court. ..... The charges relate to a case known as the "fodder scam", which first came to light in 1996. ..... Mr Yadav was charged with embezzling state funds intended to be spent on animal fodder while he was chief minister of Bihar. ...... The country's top detective agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, had charged the minister with having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. ..... Reacting to Monday's verdict by a special court in Bihar's capital, Patna, Mr Yadav said "justice has been done". ...... Laloo Prasad Yadav is one of India's most colourful politicians. He leads an influential regional party in Bihar that is allied with the Congress Party in India's national parliament. ...... He resigned as chief minister of Bihar after the allegations of corruption arose. His wife Rabri Devi was installed in his place. .... Mr Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal party lost power in state elections last year.
Graft charge for Indian minister 17 May 05 | South Asia
The lord of Bihar 30 Apr 04 | South Asia
Profile: Laloo Prasad Yadav 22 Mar 04 | South Asia
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Laloo Prasad taken into custody 05 Apr 00 | South Asia

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Sunday, December 24, 2006

New York Times: Hakeem Jeffries

The New York Times
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December 24, 2006

New Guard, and Style, for Politics in Brooklyn

In decades past, the politicians who came out of central Brooklyn, New York’s largest black community, were shaped by the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and ’60s, with many coming of age politically during the Vietnam War era.

But this year’s elections, as well as last year’s, represented a changing of the guard that could signal a wider shift of black political consciousness in the city: the emergence of a class of politicians spawned in the professional world, with experience in private industry, nonprofit organizations and other fields.

One new state lawmaker was recently a lawyer for CBS. Another raised money for private schools. A third was a police captain; while another, who is headed to the City Council, worked for the transit system.

They are largely politicians who have little to no association with Democratic Party clubhouse politicians in Brooklyn, which has been tainted by recent corruption scandals. And the sheer number of newly elected officials in central Brooklyn, perhaps the biggest changeover in years, is something of a milestone — particularly in a political world in which incumbency, at least for state lawmakers, can last virtually a lifetime.

“We are now seeing a very new group of political leaders in Brooklyn who are, quite frankly, crossover politicians who have successfully delivered a message that speaks to the interests of different constituencies,” said Craig Steven Wilder, a professor of urban history at Dartmouth College.

Mr. Wilder, author of the book “A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn,” said the new crop of elected officials was “different from the group who came to power in the 1970s and 1980s, who came to politics through civil rights issues.”

“This group represents the post-civil rights generation. And they have to deal with a different agenda,” he said. “That includes meeting the needs of people who are gentrifying their areas, people who have been there a long time and people who have been marginalized.”

Notable among the new breed is Hakeem Jeffries, 36, who left his job as a lawyer for CBS to go to Albany. He was elected this year to the Assembly seat held for 25 years by Roger L. Green, who was convicted in a petty larceny case.

Another new assemblyman is Karim Camara, 35, who served as the director of fund-raising for the Cush Campus Schools, a private elementary and middle school in Brooklyn. He is also executive pastor at the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights. Last year he succeeded Clarence Norman Jr., the former Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman who was first elected in 1982 and resigned in a scandal.

And on the City Council, there is Darlene Mealy, 42. She is a former executive assistant at New York City Transit who won a hotly contested primary last year, beating William F. Boyland Jr., the patriarch of one of Brooklyn’s well-known political families. Also elected this year was Eric Adams, 46, who will go to the State Senate, succeeding Carl Andrews. Mr. Adams, a former police captain, was also a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

The best known of the new group is Representative-elect Yvette D. Clarke, 42, a city councilwoman and a former director of business development at the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.

Ms. Clarke won a Democratic primary in September that received national attention when a white candidate, David Yassky, tried to capture the seat that for decades had been held by black lawmakers: Major R. Owens, and before him, Shirley Chisholm.

For many people in central Brooklyn who closely watch local politics, the new officials are a refreshing change after a period in which some of the incumbents they succeeded were tainted by scandal.

“The election of so many new black officials in Brooklyn has made a lot of people, including me, feel hopeful,” said the Rev. Clinton M. Miller, pastor of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

“I think many of these new leaders are viewed as representing the political prototype of what an elected official should be in this era: someone who is steeped in the community, but who also knows how to operate in corporate and business settings.”

Mr. Jeffries, for example, was an assistant general counsel who specialized in litigation at CBS. “We are all products of the community who have gone out and excelled in various endeavors,” Mr. Jeffries said.

“But we have come back to work in the community, to use politics as a way to make a difference in the communities that we come from. That’s what the civil rights movement was all about.”

But some Brooklyn Democrats question whether they will be able to avoid the infighting that has created friction among many of their predecessors.

In fact, a generation ago, central Brooklyn’s black leadership was splintered into two factions. One was a group whose de facto leader was Albert Vann, an assemblyman who started his public career as a teacher. Mr. Vann, who is now a city councilman, was a community leader in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville struggle between the black community and the United Federation of Teachers over the local school board’s power to hire teachers.

Mr. Vann, who was a supporter of Mr. Owens, was also the political mentor of Mr. Green and several others.

On the other side were politicians who were loyal to State Senator Vander L. Beatty. Mr. Beatty often worked in collaboration with Brooklyn’s regular Democratic organization, which until recently was led by white politicians from southern Brooklyn.

Indeed, a generation ago, candidates and officials in Brooklyn routinely complained that the infighting among central Brooklyn’s black officials often hampered their ability to bring resources and funds into the area.

The feuding among politicians in those days was heated. In one case, in a 1982 primary race for Congress between Mr. Beatty and Mr. Owens, Mr. Beatty’s supporters hid in a crawl space above a bathroom at the Board of Elections office in Brooklyn. After the office closed for the day, Mr. Beatty’s supporters went to where the voter files were kept and doctored registration cards of Mr. Owens’s supporters, apparently in an effort to thwart an Owens victory.

Although that was an extreme incident, there have been long-standing tensions and rivalries in the borough for years. The newer elected officials have hopes of avoiding such squabbling, with plans to meet often, perhaps at regularly scheduled breakfasts, to determine ways to allocate recourses to their districts.

“One of the things about that that I think is a good sign is that we all like each other and get along well,” Ms. Mealy said. “Some of them have not even taken office yet. But we have camaraderie already. And it will make things easier for us to work together and get things done.”

But getting things done might take more than friendship and amity. They all have the disadvantage of being low in seniority in their respective houses of government. And they generally have fewer staff members and less influence than their predecessors, who enjoyed the benefits of incumbency and the clout and resources that came with it.

Still, they insist that their lack of seniority will not limit their effectiveness.

“We have the wisdom and experience of our predecessors to build upon,” Ms. Clarke said. “And our job is to find ways of working together and making even more of a difference in this new era. And I’m sure that we will all find ways to make our mark.”

Hakeem Jeffries Debate 2
Hakeem Jeffries Debate
Hakeem Jeffries: Principled Compromise
Dean, DFNYC, Daily Kos, Justin, Brooklyn, Nepal