'For us, Laluji is our Guru'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">PATNA: Friday was the day of deification of RJD supremo and railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. It had ingredients of subservience and humour, and was a pointer to new swing taking place in the students'' wing of the RJD, the Chhatra RJD, or its adherents.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">On the auspicious Guru Purnima Day on Friday, when devotees arrange </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">havan</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> and chant </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">mantras</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> to honour their </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">gurus</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">, top office-bearers of the Chhatra RJD organised Guru Purnima Utsav to honour Lalu on the Law College campus of Patna University, close to the bank of the Ganga.He had been associated with the college as students'' leader of Patna University in the early 1970s.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">The organisers had arranged a </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">vedi</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> and used cowdung cakes for </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">havan</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> in front of the lifesize framed photograph of Lalu. The air had fragrance of incense sticks, but nothing more to resemble a religious ceremony.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Beside the </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">vedi</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">, organisers jointly chanted </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">mantras</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> like “</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Om guru devaya namah�</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">, “</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Om Lalu devaya namah�</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">, and “</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Om guruwaya namah�</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> soberly. They did it even before the camera of a private TV channel, but one of them, Mithilesh Yadav, from commerce faculty of Patna University, chipped in like an alien with his “</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Om Lalu swaha�</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">. The organisers appealed to the photographer to erase the atheistic mantra in Laludom.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">Asked why Lalu, a human being, was being transformed into a deity? President of the organisation Hira Lal Pal said. "He has given us everything we had asked for from history -- honour, economic upliftment and social dignity," Participants included students from history and science faculties, also from outside the Yadava caste.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">The priest was Chhatra RJD general secretary Pawan Kumar Yadav, who said "We are doing it as RSS honours Guru Golwalkar." During the June 1992 rally, Lalu was hailed as Krishna Avatar. "That is for the larger society to think. For us, Lalu</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">ji</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial=""> is our Guru," Pal said.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">But Mithilesh Yadav, who had tried to play spoilsport by chanting </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-style:="" italic="">Om Lalu Swaha</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="">, told TNN "I can''t be blind to the state of affairs. There is flight of capital. People are afraid of kidnappings and killings. Education has been robbed of all glory. Students and youths are at the crossroads. What is there left to hail the leader?"</span></div> </div>