The fare and fowl of Indian politics

When Cassius wondered, "Upon what meat doth this, our Caesar, feed that he is grown so great?", the Roman leader's days were numbered. Perhaps mindful of this, the former chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav - known to have been given to the pleasures of the flesh, in the culinary sense - has reportedly taken the advice of his astrologer and switched to a veggie regimen, which he hopes will help to exorcise the spectres of scams past that beset him and his family. While this shakahari strategy might not be something to scoff at as a recipe for success, it could chime ironically with the slogan popular during the Bihar chieftain's heyday, "Jab tak rahega samose mein aloo/ Tab tak rahega Bihar mein Lalu."

Now the aloo is in the Lalu - in the form of a samosa, or of humble pie - which might underscore the importance of not just vegetarianism but of vegetables per se in political life. Netas, and would-be netas, must not only know their onions but, more importantly, the prices thereof. Indeed, what with politics often being a saga of war and peas, sabzi of all sorts has been known to get netas in a stew, with governments having fallen thanks to the high cost of such produce. In such cases, the only consolation of the deposed is that prohibitive prices will prevent them from being assailed with even reject-quality tomatoes of the rotten variety.