Politics is the art of managing time and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is the most experienced practitioner of the art. With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar abroad when floods hit the state, Lalu sensed the opportunity to put Nitish in a bad light. But by the time this dawned upon him, Nitish's return was just a day away. Solution: get an Air Force chopper, do an aerial survey and make the most of that one day.
The usual procedure of requesting the IAF for a helicopter through the Defence Ministry, cleared by the PMO, would have taken time. So Lalu used his political muscle instead and directly approached the PMO. Orders came from the top and with minimal paperwork, the chopper was let out. A cheerful Lalu then rang up party colleague Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, asking him to board a flight for Patna the same evening as he had secured a helicopter for the aerial survey the next morning. That was fine as political opportunism goes.
However, in his enthusiasm, Lalu forced the pilots to land the craft on a national highway and according to IAF rulebook, such landing are wont to attract the attention of a court martial. The Air Force played its part, standing by its pilots. Not wanting to be in the cross-fire, the Defence Ministry has forwarded the IAF's report to the PMO for further action. After all, that's where the orders came from!
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