Patna: The unruly behavior of Rashtriya Janata Dal workers outside the residence of Rabri Devi in Patna got the goat of the former Bihar chief minister, who slapped one of her boisterous supporters out of vexation. The RJD supporters were creating a ruckus outside 10, Circular Road, where Rabri Devi lives and had been locked from inside by a Central Bureau Investigation team which had raided the house on Friday in connection with its case against Lalu Prasad Yadav, her husband, in the railway recruitment scandal.
The search and interrogation by CBI continued for long hours hours amidst loud protests by RJD protestors who blamed the National Democratic Alliance of political vendetta as Lalu Prasad Yadav has ceased to be the railway minister years ago. Heavy deployment of police was made outside the government bungalow, allotted to Rabri Devi for being a former chief minister and located just a stone's throw from the chief minister's official residence, when it was time for the CBI team to leave. However, officers of the investigating agency were apparently wary of wading through the crowd, which had raised slogans against the agency.
To help the CBI sleuths make a safe egress in the late evening hours on Friday, Rabri Devi herself came out along with elder son Tej Pratap Yadav.
Video footage of it went viral in the social media early on Saturday.
The former chief minister, who remains a demure home maker at heart, can be seen in the video in a simple, un-ironed salvar kameez, pleading with her supporters to calm down.
The matronly 66-year-old whacked across the face one particularly unruly supporter, who was on cue shoved aside by security personnel on duty.
"Madam and Lalu ji are like mother and father to us. You don't mind when parents slap you for mischief," said a bystander.
BJP challenges Tejashwi to move court if he feels CBI acting wrongfully against his parents
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar on Saturday challenged RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to move a court 'with evidence' if he felt that the CBI was acting wrongfully against his parents Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi.
A day after his parents' residences in Delhi and Patna were raided by the central agency in connection with a fresh corruption case, the party also sought to remind Yadav that legal woes of Prasad had begun during the rule of a 'friendly' Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the Centre.
Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, is away in London. Hearing about the fresh wrangle his parents have landed in, he has vented spleen on Twitter.
'Ay Hawa, jaakar tum Kah do dilli ke darbaron se, nahin Dara hai nahin darega Lalu in sarkaaron se (go and tell the courtiers of Delhi, o winds. Lalu has not been and will never be scared of the powers that be),' the former Bihar deputy CM said on the microblogging site.
Although Yadav did not name any party, for the BJP he seemed to have touched a raw nerve.
'We understand that Lalu ji is old and ailing and wish him an early recovery but Tejashwi should remember his father's woes began when a friendly UPA was in power,' said BJP spokesman and national general secretary of its OBC Morcha Nikhil Anand in a statement.
He underscored that the BJP, which was then in opposition, was instrumental in 'exposing' the fodder scam in which Prasad, in his capacity as the then chief minister of Bihar, was named and accused and finally got convicted.
'But the first conviction which also led to disqualification of Lalu ji, happened in 2013 when the Congress was in power. Since then, the CBI has been acting in its capacity as an independent agency,' Anand asserted.
The BJP spokesman said that if Yadav still felt that the central agency was doing something unfair, 'he must gather evidence and make his submissions before the court concerned. Hope he has not lost trust in the judiciary'.
The latest FIR lodged by the CBI, with regard to a railway recruitment scam, has come 13 years after Prasad's tenure as railway minister ended.
RJD rank and file has been openly alleging that the latest CBI crackdown was 'sponsored' by the BJP which rules the Centre.
The saffron party, which shares power with Prasad's arch-rival Nitish Kumar, appears to be wary of 'a sympathy wave' which could sway a section of voters in favour of the RJD, already on the upswing in Bihar.—PTI