The Hindu : Rabri wields the broom, walks tall

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 26, 2002

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Rabri wields the broom, walks tall

By K. Balchand

PATNA July 25. The Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, today started her day with a broom in her hand cleaning up the roads here. The day was special as she completed five years in office, notwithstanding two brief interruptions in her tenure.

She took up the cleaning exercise to rid the State capital of the garbage that has accumulated with the employees of the Patna Municipal Corporation remaining on strike for some days now and the High Court taking a serious view of the situation.

Talking to The Hindu in her Assembly chamber after disposing of files (without the assistance of her husband, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is widely perceived to be running the administration by proxy) for well over an hour, she went a step ahead of Mr. Yadav and predicted that she would continue in office for 25 more years.

Mr. Yadav had said that he would rule for 20 years when he assumed office for the first time in 1990. Exuding supreme confidence, she said she would have a majority of her own soon.

"You cannot stop people from joining the mainstream. Everyone is most welcome." Her reference was to the split in the Janata Dal (U), the splinter group of which is likely to join the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal, giving it a simple majority in the 243-member House.

Does she have any message for the people? "The poor people tell us `it is our Government, we are behind you. You rule the State' ".

"The poor will never desert us," she adds confidently.

The Chief Minister said all the talk of the Congress withdrawing support to her Government was baseless. "It will continue to be in the Government," she stressed. However, she took strong exception to the observations made by the Leader of the Opposition, S.K. Modi (BJP), that she had failed on all fronts. "Beware of the masses, they will stone you (BJP) when you go to your constituencies", she warned him.

The Opposition leaders had not utilised funds meant for the people and whatever they had spent was only for the benefit of the few who supported them.

Ms. Devi made a scathing attack on the BJP, which, she said, would be wiped out in Bihar. Parliament had been rocked over the Gujarat issue for the last two days. "Why has President's rule not been imposed in the State after so many people had been killed? Why are they holding the elections when there is no one to vote? They don't want Central rule there because they want to print bogus votes."

She did not like what her Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Mayawati, said about her during her recent visit.

"She must try to run her Government. She must not have any complaints about the welfare of the downtrodden when she has landed up in the lap of the BJP once again."

In the Assembly, the Ministers one after the other praised the achievements of the Rabri Devi Government on its entering the sixth year. The Panchayati Raj Minister, Upendra Prasad Verma, said that elections to the panchayat and urban bodies were held for the first time under the Rabri Devi regime with women being granted 33 per cent reservation. He promised a 5.5 per cent growth during the current financial year.

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Rabri wields the broom, walks tall