Fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad Yadav’s elder son (who is actually his younger son officially because of birth dates goof up) Tej Pratap Yadav is awesome. While there are many reasons for his awesomeness, one such is his last night’s live session on Facebook page by the name ‘Second Lalu Tej Pratap Yadav’.
‘Second Lalu’ Tej Pratap Yadav first thanked the new recruits of RJD student union. He first hailed all the students of Bihar for being part of RJD and sent his ‘adaab, salam and pranam’ in his true secular self. He also said ‘salam’ and ‘pranam’ to their revolutionary trait by joining the RJD.
He then talks about how everyone, whom he just offered salam and pranam to, came together to ‘fight’ the ‘enemies’ and ‘opposition’ who are constantly ‘attacking the RJD’. “You must have seen through Facebook and TV how a conspiracy is being hatched. Opposition knows that Tej and Tejashwi are the only two alternatives Bihar has who will not leave any stone unturned to make sure Bihar scales newer heights,” he says.
Bihar, under his father Lalu Prasad Yadav’s rule, was synonymous with ‘Jungle Raj‘ where nothing but crime and chaos ruled. Kidnappings were an ‘industry’ for the fifteen years ‘First Lalu’ ruled Bihar.
Tej Pratap Yadav then talks about rumours about strife between the two brothers and said that Tej is Tejashwi and Tejashwi is Tej. “I know RJD Students Union has no money to put up hoardings. I know who have put them up and doing these dirty tricks. Tejashwi Yadav who is on his way to become the Chief Minister of Bihar, I have already announced that I consider him my Arjun (referring to himself as Lord Krishna), some have sold themselves for money and alcohol. They take names of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi, Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, they drink ‘laal paani’ (alcohol) while sitting under the banner of Lotus,” he said.
Bihar currently has alcohol prohibition and selling and consuming liquor is a criminal offence.
He reiterated yet again that Tejashwi is first the leader of RJD and then his brother. “I have always made it a point to forward Tejashwi’s point. Whether on roads or in Assembly, I have always maintained that Tejashwi is my Arjun. If someone is jealous that our Tejashwi is Arjun, he is our Chief Minister (factually incorrect, he has never been Bihar CM), they can continue to be jealous. We must move on,” he said.
Sometimes the photos are missing from hoardings and one must not read too much on it, he said. “You know, during the general elections, our father’s photo was not there on the hoardings. My mother’s photo was not there, Misa Bhartiji’s photo was also not there. Even my photo was not there. Did we create a ruckus? Was the media sleeping? Were they on a leave? Today media remembers posters and banners?” the angry ‘Second Lalu’ roared.
“The media has sold itself to the Central government fully. I throw an open challenge to Bihar media <garble, garble garble> were asking obscure questions. When someone asks such obscure questions to you, you would know how the politicians go through,” he says.
Tej Pratap Yadav then goes on to naming the journalists who had asked him uncomfortable questions. “Saket Kumar, Bureau Head, Times Now, Alok, Reporter, News Wing. Raman, Reporter, Bharatvarsh ‘portal news’. There is one Bharatvarsh portal news which is an RSS channel. They never written good news about Lalu ji, my father the god or anyone from our family,” he said.
“They tried to ruin my reputation. And one more is one Divyanshu from News4Nation. This is also a soldout media. Why don’t you show the truth? Why are you after the family members of Lalu Yadav and his family? I throw an open challenge to your owners who have sold themselves like Adani and Ambani who have run away with black money. All the time ‘Lalu Family’, ‘Lalu Family’, full Bihar is ‘Lalu Family’. What is your aukat?” he asks.
The then threatens to file a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against the journalists and followed it up with a threat of FIR (First Information Report) against them. He even threatened with a defamation notice against everyone. “It is because my father let you off. All the time ‘chara ghotala, chara ghotala‘ (fodder scam, fodder scam). Why don’t you show Modi ji, Nitish ji, and Sushil Kumar Modi ji? So many posters of Sushil Kumar Modi ji, put focus on them and show them too,” an agitated Tej Pratap screamed.
“Nitish Kumar ji has murdered Sitaram ji and is still here. Why not show that? Why drag my father? I will file an FIR and a defamation suit. I will call my lawyer and file FIR against all media persons in Bihar. Just wait and watch,” he said.
It is towards the end that one realises the monologue was about the alleged rift between the two brothers. There have been rumours of Tejashwi and Tej Pratap not getting along too well since past few years. Ahead of 2019 general elections, Tej Pratap had launched his own political party ‘Lalu Rabri Morcha’ where he had said he would contest as independent candidate. Prior to that, in June 2018, he had asserted that he would quit politics, only to change his decision in a matter of hours and ended up blaming the RSS for reports of a rift with Tejaswi. Later, in October that year, his sister Misa Bharti, Lalu’s daughter, had also confirmed the rift between the two brothers only to call it a ‘media twist’ later.
Over time, Tej Pratap had made a habit of attracting media attention, although for rather unusual reasons. His marital life has been going through a rough patch as well and he can be often seen at various places dressed up in colorful attire. After 2019 elections were over, he had given himself a monicker ‘Dusra Lalu‘ and had declared himself as Lord Krishna equivalent to Tejashwi (who was the Arjun) and he would slain anyone who comes to destroy him with a Sudarshan Chakra.
Now, it seems the ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ will be the PILs. For the record, Supreme Court has said that frivolous PILs are not permitted.
