Click to play videoNew Delhi: Forget Bollywood, India's most popular man abroad seems to be Lalu Prasad. Students from two of the world's top business schools met Lalu on Wednesday to learn about how he transformed the Indian Railways. What they got in addition was a dose of Lalugiri.
Part pending prime minister, part rock star and part Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad spent Wednesday morning with 137 students from Harvard and Wharton telling them about how the Indian Railways started making money instead of losing it.
"I was asked when I would be Prime Minister and I said I had kept the matter pending," said Lalu.
His hour long closed doors class included an extempore talk and a free-for-all question and answer session and it had an impact.
"What's really impressive is fact that he couldn't fire anybody which is the easiest way to turnaround a company," says a Harvard student, Simmons James.
Adds another student, Soura Bhattacharyya, "Some of what he said was lost in translation, but the manner in which he spoke held our attention."
Language barriers and un-translatable quips aside, Lalu was at his vocal best with the students, talking about both current success and past failures.
"I was asked why I didn't do well in Bihar. In Bihar there are droughts, Naxalism and the lowest per capita income in the country. Outside help is needed to sort out the problem," Lalu told the captivated students.
The students will meet other leaders and the president, but one doubts that they will find anything to rival Lalu's chat.
The Lalu bandwagon rolls on and the visit to these esteemed universities was a significant step in Lalu's transformation from country bumpkin par excellence to stereotype breaking economic reformer.
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