'BJP suffers from Laloo phobia'

By Our Staff Reporter

PATNA,OCT.6. ``America suffers from the Osama Bin Laden nightmare and the BJP from the Laloo Prasad Yadav phobia. Neither of them knows how to bell the cat and the BJP rats are hoping that they will succeed in their game plan only when I'm asleep.''

These words of the former Chief Minister and RJD president sum up the mood of the rank and file of his party. On Mr. Yadav's line they targeted their guns against the BJP-led NDA and declined to comment on the Supreme Court ruling transferring the trial of 36 fodder scam cases from Patna to Jharkhand.

By its ruling the Apex Court set aside the ruling of the Patna High Court which allowed the continuation of the trial in these cases stressing, in the wake of the division of the State, that they were not exclusively related in all aspects to the newly created State of Jharkhand.

The RJD leaders on condition of anonymity pointed out that the Bihar Reorganisation Act had clearly stated that only those cases which were exclusively related to Jharkhand would be transferred to the new State. They also pointed out that the CBI itself had filed the chargesheets in the designated court in Patna even though similar CBI courts had existed even before the bifurcation in the plateau region.

The RJD leaders see motive in the CBI's eagerness to now have the trial in these cases in different courts of Jharkhand. Mr. Yadav has accused the CBI of serving as a political tool of the BJP-led NDA.

The Apex Court's decision will add to Mr.Yadav's harassment but all eyes are on Monday's verdict regarding the stay it had granted over the execution of the arrest warrant in a fresh case filed at the Ranchi bench. In case it vacates the stay, Mr. Yadav would be required to surrender in the aforesaid case.

The reaction of the NDA leaders anticipating a fresh jail term for Mr. Yadav has evoked a sharp counter-offensive from the RJD camp. Mr. Yadav has been quick to point out that he had kept the Union Home Minister, Mr. Advani, at a guest house in Masanjore when he had stopped his rath yatra and had him arrested. He took pains to point out that he had provided the government helicopters to his daughter and son-in-law to visit him.

But the real onslaught was launched by the RJD spokesman, Mr.Shivanand Tiwari, who apprehended a threat to Mr. Yadav from the statements of the NDA leaders including the Jharkhand Chief Minister, Mr. Babulal Marandi. He feared that the manner in which the NDA leaders had sought to make the court ruling a golden opportunity to vent their anger and hatred could cause a security problem for Mr. Yadav in the Ranchi jail if the designated court denies him bail when he surrenders should the Apex Court vacate the stay order on the execution of the arrest warrant.

Mr. Tiwari said that the RJD would consider its options to ensure proper security for Mr. Yadav while stressing that he had been provided with CRPF personnel to guard him at the behest of the Centre's threat perceptions. The court had also directed for special arrangements when he happened to be lodged in the Patna central jail.

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