Patna:
Residents of the Bihar capital were on Tuesday reminded of the boisterous Holi celebrations organised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, as his elder son pedaled down the streets with hordes of supporters who broke into ‘Phagwa’ songs and smeared each other’s faces with ‘gulaal’.
Yadav, who sounds quite a lot like his inimitable father, seemed intent on stepping into the shoes of Prasad when he sat with a ‘dholak’ (drum) on his lap at his Strand Road residence and bellowed traditional Holi songs amid cheers from scores of loyalists, who had thronged the house.
The revelry within the premises was followed by a cycle march to the residence of Yadav’s mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi, who lives half a mile away.
The 10, Circular Road residence, which has been a witness to many a Holi celebrations presided over by the RJD supremo, wore a sombre look as Rabri Devi has discontinued the celebrations for the past couple of years, upset over her husband being away in Ranchi — ailing and serving sentences in fodder scam cases.
The elder son greeted his mother by putting ‘gulaal'(coloured powder) on her feet and upon receiving her blessings came out and greeted “Holi Mubarak” to all the staff deployed on the sprawling premises.
This was followed by yet another round of cycling through the streets of the VIP area by Yadav and his supporters, many of whom tore each other’s clothes reminding bemused onlookers of the “kapdaa phaad” Holi that used to be associated with Lalu Prasad in his hey days.
Another prominent Holi celebration involving a politician was held at the residence of Congress MLC Prem Chandra Mishra, who mocked BJP leaders for deciding to stay away from the celebrations in view of the coronavirus scare.
“Imitation is the best form of flattery. So BJP leaders in Bihar thought what better way to ingratiate themselves with the top brass than following the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who announced on Twitter that he will not be celebrating Holi because of coronavirus,” Mishra – who is also an AICC media panelist – said.
Notably, top BJP leaders from the state, including Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, had last week announced cancellation of their proposed Holi celebrations, within hours of the prime minister’s tweet.
“The Congress party is not impressed with such antics and I hope all my party colleagues are celebrating Holi at their respective places with gusto. The Prime Minister’s gesture in itself was bunkum.
“We saw not a single tweet or statement from him on the Delhi riots, which took place right under his nose. But he claims to be immensely moved by a pandemic which, fortunately, has not affected the country significantly,” Mishra added.
