The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, May 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Display of wealth — Laloo style
Santosh Jha

Patna, May 24
“The legendary King of Mithilanchal and father of Sita, Janak who married off his daughter to Lord Rama would have blushed had he seen the marriage of Laloo Yadav’s daughter Rohini Acharya tonight”, a poor farmer who had come all the way from Samastipur to see the marriage said, utterly in awe of the stateliness, sumptuousness and brilliance of the arrangement. He was not alone in his expression.

The difference was that Janak had his own wealth and Laloo Yadav and his men ‘milked’ the traders and took the ‘cream’ of the government assets and machinery to make the event a notoriously memorable one. The Bollywood stars, political VIPs, judges and almost all important officials and cops of the state witnessed the marriage that silenced all democratic values, all pretensions of law and almost all sense of sanity.

The stage erected for marriage was competing with Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’. Sources estimated the cost of the ‘Jaymal stage’ at around one crore. The ‘mandap’ where the marriage was solemnized itself was worth a few lakhs: What Laloo Yadav actually had to pay is what the Income Tax Department might be interested in, provided his new IT Commissioner ‘samadhi’ allows that to happen. Three trucks of silk carpets were reportedly brought from Kolkata. The marriage area had all new furniture, allegedly taken away by force from traders at Nala Road in the state capital. Some of them still had the stickers on. The count of sofas and chairs could not be possible for normal human brain.

The lighting arrangement could put even ‘Devdas’ to shame. A rough estimate puts a total of around 300 sodium lights, equal number of halogen bulbs, a thousand tube lights, three hundred arc lights. Decorative bulbs were put up along the roads and on the gates to welcome the guests. The Patna Electric Supply Unit and State Electricity Board had already changed old transformers and had put the repaired transformers in stand by. Altogether 22 mast lights and thousands of sodium lights in major streets were put in order so that the ‘baratis’ and VIP guests could get a “good view” of Patna. Four power substations were directed to provide power supply simultaneously so that even if one substation tripped owing to overload, another would be in stand by.
The most impressive scene was presented however by the 100 brand new cars without number plates. Maruti, Hyundai, Matiz, Indica in different colors but all new were lining in queue. The cars were reportedly ‘forcibly taken away’ from the various showrooms of the state capital for three days.

Menu of 150 dishes

FOOD is what Laloo Yadav supervises personally and that is why it had to be the most kingly affair. The menu card could be rolled on the street to get full length. The food for ‘barati’ alone had 150 dishes including main course salad and dessert. The caterer of Siliguri who was chosen by Laloo Yadav, Mr Rajesh Goyal while informing about the dishes said that a team of 265 men including 90 cooks had arrived on May 22 to prepare the elaborate courses. The guests had choice of Italian food, Chinese, Indian tandoori and Bangla dishes.

The official residence of Laloo Yadav, adjacent to Rabri Devi’s official residence was the venue for the food. Elaborate tents were profligately decorated to seat 200 ‘baratis’ who preferred to eat in traditional way on ground. For the rest, it was buffet system. The food was strictly vegetarian as Laloo Yadav has off late turned vegy. However the food range was as rich as Italian Pasta and Momo. Chinese had a wide range. The snacks included variety of ‘pakoras’ and ‘chatnees’. Be it fruits, ice creams, drinks, every thing had at least 10 to 15 varieties. Laloo Yadav had been omnipresent in all places with his special instructions.