Lalu's conviction tinted?

Hero to millions of followers, Lalu elicits extreme responses of likes and dislikes. A sampling of public opinion on him

Marshall McLuhan said famously, that the medium is the message. With the Internet and a spiralling social media, things have changed somewhat. The message makes the medium these days as leaders are seeing the opinions of people thrust in front of them in a cascade of interactions. Unlike in the ballot box battle where numbers used to make the message every few years, the diverse opinions of today’s people make for interesting debates everyday, and not only on the leaders but also on issues, events and just about anything that captures their fancy. It may never be possible to come to a definitive conclusion from all this but the wide variety of views offered is fascinating.

We will be taking a weekly look at what the tweeple are thinking, what they are saying by way of arguments and who is in their crosshairs even as the run-up to the great national elections of 2019 raises the temperature of every opinion offered on the internet nowadays.

Lalu Prasad is the flavour of the season as the once social revolutionary of Bihar faces an unprecedented 14 years in jail for graft in one of the many cases of filching from the treasury. Was he a big sinner or was he sinned against because he vociferously opposes the current dispensation? We invite you to form your own opinion even as we present a whole load of views on Lalu.

Bhaiyyaji @bhaiyyajispeaks
When all of our Liberal Journalists are busy portraying the innocence of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Let me explain what was the Era of Jungleraj, A criminalised nexus of politicians, government officials and few businessmen under the regime of ‘Saheb..Biwi andGangsters’ Total number of kidnappings reported in Bihar between 1992-2004 was more than 32 thousands, many were killed even after they took the ransom, Doctors & Engineers literally shifted to Varanasi due to the fear of Lalu Yadav & company, He pushed Bihar at least 10 years back

Pritish Nandy @PritishNandy
We all know why @laluprasadrjd is being punished so severely and the truth is it has little to do with the fodder scam and more to do with his politics
For @laluprasadrjd what matters is not you or me or Sonia Gandhi. What matters is what his voters think and quite honestly my impression is that they will stay with him no matter what.

raj @raj2jas
Really stupid tweet. Courts punish the defaulters & Lalloo was one of the most corrupt politicians. From cowshed to thousands of crores wealth. Surprisingly a learned? journalist questioning wisdom of courts.

SSRao @sujithrao
Lalu is single handedly responsible for destroying Bihar to its seams. Do not and I repeat please do not make history kinder for Lalu that how it actually was. The sentences might be extraordinary but he is a crook

onkar @onkarranvir
IAS officer was burnt alive, naxal raaj, murders, loot, kidnappings. Only a bihari can understand what the situation was.phle bolte h neta jail nhi jata, aur jab jata h to political revenge

Nancy Jha @NancyJha
Surely Lalu hs bn targetted for being a fierce critic of Modi, and has not compromised on that. Matter for which he is convicted is minuscule compared to large scale corruption legalised by Modi, vyapams, panama, paradise, jay shahs, rafale, nimo @PritishNandy

Nikhil Kumar @ultapultanikhil
Didn’t take it personally. I say the same thing. Matlab Yadav log vote daalte hai Lalu ko, bhai Lalu, Yadav logo ke liye kya kar diya? Some of poorest Muslims are in Bihar. We are at the bottom of every index

Sanjay Manchanda @sanjumanu093
Whatever, but the fact of matter is that there has to evidence of corruption to convict. Otherwise heavyweight like Laluji with battery of lawyers can’t be convicted

Makarand R Paranjape @MakrandParanspe
Are you implying, Sir, that the other side would have set him free in spite of being convicted of defrauding the exchequer of 100s of crores?