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Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is seen as an astute politician and a rustic crowd puller by many of his countrymen, but a group of young management students from the US on Saturday gave him a new tag -- a good manager.
For the second time in a little over a week, Lalu donned the role of a "guru" to tell management students from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the "turnaround" of the Indian Railways from a loss-making entity to a profit-making one.
The master in Lalu certainly did not disappoint them as he explained how he "brought the railways on track" during the interaction. However, the students felt it was not his technical ability but his managerial skills that made the difference.
"He put the right people in the right places and gave the opportunity to those people who can bring about a change. I think he is a good manager," Indian student Vikas Khandelwal said after the hour-long session.
Though the students listened to his lecture in rapt attention, they did not get much time to pose questions to the minister and his replies to some queries were incomprehensible for many of them.
"I asked a question on the lack of development in Bihar and I think he replied like a politician. He gave a long answer but I didn't get what he said," Khandelwal, who hails from Bihar, said.
On the other hand, railway officials who attended the interaction said Lalu pointed to the lack of funds from the Central government and the Planning Commission for the sad state of affairs of his home state.
PTI
Photograph: Dijeshwar Singh/ Saab Pictures