Vote for arranged marriages

A desperate Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad is fighting a tough electoral battle in Bihar and has been pulling out the stops to hit out at his chief political rivals - the Janata Dal (United)'s Nitish Kumar and Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi. Addressing an election rally in Danapur near Patna, Lalu Prasad made one of his joking remarks about the two allies that have now split. "Yeh kamal chaap wala aur teerwala ka joh love marriage tha 17 saal ka, voh ab divorced ho gaye," he said. (This lotus symbol and arrow symbol were in a love marriage for 17 long years but now they are divorced). As for himself, he said to much applause from the crowd, "Hamara aur Rabri ka jo hai ab tak, voh hai arranged marriage." (What Rabri Devi and I still have is a successful arranged marriage). Clearly, for the Yadav chieftain and his rural support base, the virtues of an arranged marriage over love marriage cannot be over emphasised.