IIM students lap up Prof Lalu's lessons

Ahmedabad, Sep 18 (UNI) For the IIM-A students today, it was a memorable day, as Railway Minister Lalu Prasad donned the Professor's cap and sent them into guffaws, in his inimitable rustic style during a three-hour lecture.

''We did not realise how the three hours passed. He had all of us in ruptures,'' said Akshat Khare, a student.

As the Minister spoke at length about the initiative taken by him to turn the Railways from a loss making concern to the second largest profit-earning public sector enterprise, the students could not help giving him his due. ''Well, one may not use word turnaround, but there is no doubt that it was a commendable performance by the Railways,'' said Rahul Roshan, another student.

They all agreed that the performance has been due to certain ingenuous decisions taken by the Railway Minister, especially for increasing the axle load.

He took several digs at his officials, like targetting an Engineer for not letting him go ahead with the increase.

When he was asked by Prof Raghuram to sit and address the students, the Minister quipped,''Sikhane aaye hain toh thodi na baithke bolenge,'' (I have come to teach, so how can I sit and deliver my talk) sending everyone into peals of laughter.

Mr Prasad also delivered a lecture on 'Change and Transformation in Indian Railway' at an auditorium, after which he took questions from the audience. There too, he deftly handled questions with ease.

To a questioner, who asked him about IIM's anti-reservation stand, he said,''Today's agenda is not reservation. Today we will talk of Railway achievements.'' When queried about why nothing much has been done to improve the conditions in Ahmedabad's railway stations, he said,''Mr Modi (Chief Minister) has not been taking too much interest in Railway-related matters!'' On why he could not effect a similar turnaround in Bihar, he said he was not allowed to work. ''Bakri ke tarah gala dabaya tha.(our throat was pressed like one does it to a goat)'' He said he had taken the Railway portfolio with a challenge to do a turnaround.''Railway was doing badly at that time. I was discouraged by people to take it. They said accidents happen every other day. But I took the Prime Minister's speech at the Lal Quila seriously, when he said he wanted Indian railway to become numero uno in the world, from its present third position.'' ''Now we have achieved a balance fund of Rs 13,500 crores without increasing the fare,'' he said proudly.

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