Lalu keeps PM's ambition ''pending''

New Delhi, Dec 27 (UNI) It was a war of wits between charismatic Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and brilliant students of Harvard and Wharton Business Schools with a remark from the RJD powerhouse that the question of his becoming the prime minister was for the future.

''I have kept the issue pending,'' Mr Prasad quipped when asked by a Pakistani student whether he was keen to become the prime minister of India.

To buttress his claim, he said that he was not ''too old'' though only his hair were grey. Besides, he had other wherewithals that went into the making of a prime minister.

But Mr Prasad felt there was no point in making much ado about it, adding that ''when a fruit becomes ripe, it automatically falls.'' The mass leader from Bihar said the issue often gets raised in political circles but felt that it served little purpose. ''There is no point quibbling over the issue,'' he later told reporters.

Students from the Harvard and Wharton referred to the paradox that as the Railway Minister, his was a phenomenal success story but as the former Chief Minister of Bihar, there was little to crow about.

Not to be undone by the rather embarrassing query, Mr Prasad said, ''Bihar has been a victim of Naxal menace and poor law and order. Infrastructure is bad and per capita income is at the bottom of the heap.'' He said Bihar was a special case and needed special treatment.

When asked by another student whether Indian Railways would continue to sustain its momentum and growth impulses when he won't be the minister, Mr Prasad said he had given a ''steel frame'' to the railways and irrespective of the change in the minister or the government, the growth story would continue.

''Nobody will be able to tinker or tamper with the steel frame of the Railways which I have given to the government's biggest department which was tethering on the brink of a financial collapse some years ago,'' he said.

Talking to reporters, the minister said he was very happy with the success story of the railways which was making ripples in top grade business schools all over the world.

''The students and their teachers are greatly impressed by the turnaround of the Indian Railways and if any one of them wants internship and training in its functioning, we will provide all facilities,'' he added.

One Japanese student at Harvard said he was tremendously impressed by Mr Prasad whose turnaround of the railways is ''real and not phoney.'' He personaly liked the minister for his witticism, charm, honesty and dedication.

'' Some years ago, Japanese Railway had also been incurring massive losses but it made a turnaround after being privatised, but Mr Prasad has done it without corporatising the railways,'' he added.

The minister was quick to point out that he had scripted a success story because he had always treated Railways as ''a family'' and never looked upon its 1.4 million strong workforce from the point of view of a bureaucrat.

UNI/SKS PK HT1522