Nitish Kumar on railway white paper dubs Lalu 'vain and vacuous'

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar described former railway Minister Lalu Prasad as a "vain and vacuous" person given to horrendous and conscious misinterpretation and manipulation of facts to mislead people and tom-tom non-n-existent performance. He was reacting to the status paper on the functioning of railways, presented in the Lok Sabha on Friday by Railway Minuster Mamata Bannerjee.

"His claims of Rs 90,000 crore surplus have been proved hollow. What he did to Bihar in 15 years, he did the same to the Railways in just five years. The White paper has exposed his white lies. My stand has been vindicated," he added.

The Chief Minister said that the former railway minister had all along been ducking queries on investment front, especially when he claimed, that the Railways had accruing surpluses. "That he is a follower of Goebbels has been proved by the white paper," he said and took a dig at the UPA government at the Centre, saying, "UPA-2 has exposed the wrongs of UPA-1."

Kumar, who had been the Railway minister during the NDA regime, said, "When the Railways was drum beating his surplus
theory, he took all the credit. But as soon as the White paper was laid in Parliament, he has passed the buck to rail officials," he said.

The Chief Minister said that Prasad had systematically looted passengers through tatkal tickets and by increasing fare after the budget. "How could a man who destroyed Bihar for 15 long years transform the railways in 5?" he wondered.

He said, "The health of rail tracks was improved by creating a special rail safety fund of Rs 17,000 crore for increasing safety during NDA's rule. But, Lalu milked it by increasing the axle load," he added.

"Very soon you will come to know whether the Harvard and IBM came on their own to meet him or were called in to add to his vain glory," he signed off.

Deputy chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that White paper has brought out the "Lalu's Sacch (truth)" to the fore.

He said, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi also owe an explanation to the country as to how they were 'befooled' by "the management guru.'