Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Among those who emerged out of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement, Lalu Prasad Yadav is a very important leader in Indian politics today. Ironically, Lalu Yadav has been accused of a multi-crore fodder scam in Bihar.

The students' movement, which brought Lalu Yadav close to Narayan and the centrestage of Indian politics, started off as an anti-corruption campaign.

After three decades since his tryst with public life, his critics see Lalu Yadav as an embodiment of corruption and lawlessness in the state of Bihar where he was chief minister for nearly a decade.

Narayan's fight was never against an individual or the government. He, in fact, wanted to flush out corruption, unemployment and poverty from society by what he called amool parivartan or change from the bottom. Yadav, who walked hand-in-hand with Narayan, has been accused of doing just the reverse.

On February 18, 1974, Lalu Yadav, who was the then president of Patna University Students' Union and student of law, organised a meeting of several student groups and formed the Bihar Chatra Sangharsh Samiti.

The objective was to wage a struggle demanding lowering of the prices of food, textbooks, cinema tickets, and a reduction in tuition fees and better hostel accommodation.

The umbrella organisation included students from all schools of thought, including the rightwing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. However, the communists refused to join Lalu Yadav.

Later, the movement covered other issues in its ambit and demanded a crackdown on black-marketeers and middlemen. After gaining some stability in the movement, Lalu Yadav, with other student leaders, requested Narayan to lead them. Narayan readily agreed.

The student leaders, including Lalu Yadav, then started working under Narayan. Protests and demonstrations became a regular feature. However, the movement became violent soon. Government buses and offices were burnt.

Lalu Yadav was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act. While he was in jail, his wife Rabri Devi delivered his first baby girl who was named Misa Yadav.

Lalu Yadav shared the prison cell with ABVP activists Sushil Kumar Modi who worked with him together during the student struggle. Today, both are each other's political adversaries in Bihar.

Lalu Yadav, who was elected for the first time to the Lok Sabha in 1977 just after the Emergency was lifted, is currently railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. His wife, until recently, was the chief minister of Bihar. The duo have been ruling the state for the last 15 years based on caste votes.

Similarly, Mulayam Singh Yadav was active in Uttar Pradesh. He later became the defence minister and is currently chief minister of the state.

Interestingly, both Yadavs are thriving on caste and religious politics; something Narayan was totally opposed to.