Rajesh Sinha

New Delhi: Seen mostly as her husband’s puppet, installed straightaway as chief minister at the beginning of her political career “to keep the seat warm” for her husband Lalu Prasad, the phenomenon called Rabri Devi is undoubtedly a good theme for a biography.

Rabri Devi — Lalu’s Masterstroke by a journalist, Manoj Chaurasia, records the travails of the lady as she assumed office and entered the hurly burly of political life. It traces her transformation from “a rustic housewife to a combative leader”, talks of her equation with her husband and also mentions an aspect that Lalu Prasad would find irksome: his closeness to Kanti Singh, Lalu’s protégé and present union minister of state for tourism and culture.

The biography mentions Rabri Devi’s troubles as a greenhorn.

“She would shudder at the mere thought of meeting people and would panic if asked to chair a meeting. She would struggle to deliver a speech even if it was prepared in Hindi,” the book says.

The opposition and even bureaucrats mocked her. The then leader of the opposition, BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi said she had not spoken 15 complete sentences in the first 15 days in office. He also challenged her to name her 76 ministers and their portfolios.

Rabri did not care to learn Hindi letters and “her thumb impression on official papers were a cause of embarrassment”.

She had learnt Hindi 35 years ago as a school going child and nearly forgotten the language.

An IAS officer, Rajbala Verma was given the task of training Rabri to read and write and finally managed to teach her to scribble her signature on files.

Her ministers and officers shuddered at the thought of the Independence Day function that was barely a fortnight away. The officials had to prepare the shortest-ever speech with the simplest of words to ensure she pronounced them correctly and short sentences since she could not handle longer ones. It was a 10-line speech but she could not go through the text in one go. But Rabri learnt the ropes fast. She became skilled in tackling arguments and debates and on occasion silenced rivals with her wit and homely style, according to the book.

The book also mentions her strong hold on Lalu Prasad with regard to people associated with.

But as much as she tried, she could not stop him from helping Kanti whom Rabri disliked intensely, according to the book.

She banned Kanti’s entry to her house, once driving her away with a broom in hand. But all this did not deter her husband from getting Kanti into the council of ministers in the UPA government.

Source : DNA