I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would write a post about Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav. The railway minister of India.
From as long as I can remember Lalu used to be the posterboy for "What is wrong with Indian politics".
All magazines, from tabloids to the intellectuals, slammed him, his netagiri and everything.
But for all the brickbats he got, he's done something which nobody before him could do.
He made the Indian railways profitable.
Sure there are lots of problems. Trains are late, there is filth on stations and you have to book in advance, but with money coming in all that should go away.
Till Lalu took the mantle, the worlds largest employer was like a black hole, sucking in money. with Lalu, it has cash surplus of 25000 crores.
I wonder how he did it. What he did for such a turnaround.
No wonder then, even IIMs want him to give management lessons.
That said I often wonder, why do we have a front page article when a darling neta kisses a dog, but not a whimper when somebody pulls of such a rare feat.