Family Farce

Once again, Bihar’s most storied political family has traded governance for melodrama. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav ostensibly to fight for social justice, has become less a political outfit and more a family-run reality show. The latest episode stars Lalu’s mercurial elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, who was dramatically expelled by his father from both party and family for the grievous crime of publicly declaring love with another woman.

“Disregard for moral values weakens our struggle for social justice,” Lalu posted on X (formerly Twitter) after expelling his wayward son. That Lalu Prasad, convicted fodder scamster and longtime purveyor of Bihar’s worst excesses, should lecture anyone on moral values is a bit like Oscar Wilde teaching temperance or Donald Trump conducting a seminar on marital fidelity.

Tej Pratap, never one to be tethered by logic or discretion (he once compared himself to Krishna and his brother Tejashwi to Arjuna), claimed his account was hacked. One is left wondering if this was a personal crisis or an audition for the next Ekta Kapoor serial. His girlfriend apparently materialised from twelve years of secrecy, just in time to detonate his father’s electoral prospects as Bihar heads into a keenly-contested poll.

For seasoned watchers of Indian dynasties, this is not a fall from grace but gravitational inevitability. The Nehru-Gandhi family do palace intrigue with a veneer of Nehruvian gravitas. The Yadavs of Bihar offer something earthier: a blend of Lear, Bal Thackeray and the Real Housewives of Pataliputra. Rabri Devi, the former chief minister and mother of the errant Tej, appears resigned. Like Goneril and Regan in reverse, she watches as her family devours itself.

Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav, the anointed heir and Lalu’s most plausible political investment, has played the dutiful brother while keeping an arm’s length from the wreckage. It appears Tej Pratap’s recent attempt to float a parallel ideological group called the ‘Dharmanirpeksha Sevak Sangh’ was the final straw. Not content with flouting marital vows, he was now flirting with heresy. Worse, his theatrics risked diverting attention from the RJD’s one great asset: the illusion of unity.

The irony is that the Yadav family has become what they once claimed to fight - dynastic, unaccountable, mired in corruption and farcically out of touch. The ruling BJP and JD(U) must be enjoying the spectacle with popcorn in hand.

This saga exposes the deep rot within the RJD. Lalu’s brothers-in-law, Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Yadav, have defected. Rabri is little more than a shadow. Tejashwi, while competent, is weighed down by the baggage of family loyalty.

One cannot build social justice on a foundation of family theatrics and moral hypocrisy. As always with the Yadavs, the line between satire and reportage is perilously thin. As the state gears up for assembly elections, Lalu, who once rode to power promising social justice, feels the need to clarify his family’s moral compass. But this time, he may find the voters simply bored.