The Hindu Business Line : It's Pilgrimage Express for Lalu and family

THE six-day visit to the South by the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, and his wife, Ms Rabri Devi, Bihar Chief Minister, is not just about railways. It's about pilgrimage too.

By sheer coincidence or by design, Mr Lalu Prasad's itinerary touches some top temple towns in the South. The tour, which started at Tirupati on September 16, will conclude at Kanyakumari on September 21.

The list of places includes Tirupati, Srikalahasti, Madurai, Rameswaram, Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram.

There are rumours that Mr Lalu Prasad and his wife are visiting famous temples in the South as per advice by astrologers. Though it is not officially confirmed whether he would visit temples in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the Railway Minister and his wife, accompanied by about 20 relatives, visited the Tirupati and Srikalahasti temples on Saturday.

At Srikalahasthi, home to the famous Shaivaite temple, they performed the `rahu-ketu' puja. He was restless as the motorcade in which his kin was travelling arrived late. Mr Lalu Prasad waited outside the temple without accepting the formal welcome by temple authorities till the motorcade arrived.

Before proceeding to the temple, he inaugurated the renovated railway station building. Mr Lalu Prasad was also accompanied by two of his Cabinet colleagues, Mr R. Velu and Ms Tanabaka Lakshmi. Some developmental projects at railway stations along the Tirupati-Bitragunta stretch were also inaugurated.

Despite Mr Lalu Prasad's assertion that earthen cups should be used at the railway stations and that officials would be punished for violations, thermocole cups were freely used in the train he was travelling. However, earthen cups were displayed prominently at all Lalu's stopovers.

"What can we do if people are not interested in using them? Whoever asks for them, gets them," a Railway official said. Sourcing and maintaining the stock were the two major problems with earthen cups, he said. "Not only that, it's not there in our culture to use them for sipping tea or coffee," he said.

At the Gudur public meeting, Mr Lalu Prasad spoke in English. "I will try to speak in English. But it's not good. But it is certainly better than Mulayam's and Pashwan's," he said, drawing cheers from the public.

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