New Delhi: Lalu Prasad is now so busy "giving a steel frame to the Railways" that he has kept his ambition to become the Prime Minister of India "pending".
That is exactly what Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad told a group of Harvard and Wharton Business Schools students when they called on him for some management lesson on Wednesday. After IIM-Ahmedabad, Lalu held his class at the National Rail Museum this time.
A Pakistani student studying at Harvard put the question to Lalu about his prime ministerial ambition. Lalu had a ready answer. He said he is not averse to the idea of becoming the PM of India, but he has kept it 'pending' for now.
"I have kept the issue pending. I am not very old, only my hair had grayed. When the time comes, I will decide. There is no point in quibbling over the issue right now," Lalu said matter-of-factly.
The Railway Minister said he is currently busy giving a 'steel frame' to the Railways so that the growth story continues even if there is a change in guard in the ministry or the government.
Nobody will be able to tinker or tamper with the steel frame of the Railways which he has given to the government's biggest department, Lalu said, adding that the Railways was tethering on the brink of a financial collapse some years ago.
The bizkids also appreciated the massive task the Lalu accomplished in steering a turnaround of the Railways. One Japanese student at Harvard said he was tremendously impressed by Mr Prasad's turnaround story, which he felt was 'real and not phoney'.
Lalu himself claimed that the 137 Harvard and Wharton students and their teachers "were greatly impressed by the Railways story." He even offered internship and training in the functioning of our Railways if anyone of them wants to avail it. "We will provide all the facilities," he said.
Lalu earlier gave management tips to students at the IIMs in Ahmedabad and Bangalore and the chief of US corporate giant General Electric came to India to study the success of the railways.
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