"Woh bhoot ho gaye hain (they have become ghosts)," Nitish said a few days ago, chuckling. Unmindful of the eyes of the camera, he added: "Let them do it. They will get tired. So much of work is being done in the state. Tahalte rah jayenge (They will just keep walking on the road with no one hanging around to listen to them)."
 

Nitish said that he and his government had nothing to fear from the bogey of ghosts being raised by RJD elements, as the "Ojha Guni Party (OJP)", euphemism for the Hindutva-centric BJP, was his partner.

"Yes, I had said that, but that was in a different context," Nitish said. For the present, Nitish seemed to be enjoying the ghostly presence of Lalu in the state. "They are preparing for the parliamentary elections. Our Vikas Yatra has already started," he added.

Lalu in the role of an exorcist

As reported on Jan 29, 2007: Have you ever known a state minister to act as an exorcist. May be nowhere in the world it may happen but certainly it happens only in India. Charging RJD Supreme Lalu Prasad with `practicing the role of an exorcist (ojha)' at his native Fulwaria village in Bihar's Gopalganj district on the occasion of inauguration of a temple, the State's ruling JD (U) demanded his immediate arrest for breaching law. His act blatantly violates the Bihar Witchcraft Prevention Act enacted by erstwhile RJD Government in 1999,''

Mr. Ramanad Tiwari drew the attention of the Income Tax Department to the alleged expense of Rs.15 lakh on the construction of the newly-built temple and Rs.45 lakh on the puja ceremony that took place during the invocation of the goddess by the Minister.

He also referred to other expenses the Railways had incurred on transporting Mr. Lalu's family members, its officials the cultural teams which travelled to Gopalganj from different parts of the country to perform at Fulwaria on the occasion and said all these expenses required scrutiny.

Anyway, if anyone from 'Harvard' and 'Wharton' BusinessSchools or IIM Ahmedabad, wants lessons in such weird practice of exorcism, Lalu seems to have good knowledge on this too!!

Exorcist Priest jailed

A Romanian priest, who tied a nun to a cross and let her die in terrible pains, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The Romanian priest was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he and four nuns were responsible for the death of a nun in the ritual of exorcism.

The tragic event took place in the monastery of the Holy Trinity in the village of Tanacu in the north-east of Romania.

Irina Maricica Cornici, 23, was tied up for several days without food or water and chained to a cross during an exorcism ritual led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, a monk who served as the convent's priest, and four other nuns.

Cornici believed she heard the devil talking to her. She was treated for schizophrenia, but when she relapsed, Corogeanu and the nuns tried exorcism.

The ritual finished by tying her to a cross and pushing a towel in her mouth so that Satan can not speak through he, which is why she choked.

Lalu sets ghost after Nitish

As reported on Jan 9, 2007: Is there any connection between a ghost and the pruning of a mango tree at the Bihar Chief Minister's official residence here under which Railway Minister Lalu Prasad once luxuriated on balmy summer evenings?

Prasad would have us believe so, as at the time of vacating the 1, Anne Marg residence, he had said he had tied a ghost to the tree to keep troubling new incumbent Nitish Kumar.

"Now that they have cut the branches of the tree, the ghost will cut short Nitish Kumar's rule," Prasad told reporters in an informal chat at 10, Circular Road, the new residence of his wife, Leader of Opposition Rabri Devi.

When it was pointed out that Kumar claimed not to believe in superstition, Prasad quipped, "Sab bekaar baat hai (it is all nonsense). Why else has the administrator of the state Religious Trust Board appointed by the chief minister organized so many recitals of Hanuman Chalisa at the Mahavir temple at the behest of Kumar every day?"

When asked to comment on the matter at a press conference, Kumar was first reluctant to speak but later insisted that the branches were cut at the suggestion of the director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, who wanted to graft another kind of mango to create a new variety of the fruit.

"Woh ab khud bhootpoorva ho gaye hain is liye bhoot ki baat karte hain (Prasad has become a thing of the past and so loves talking about ghosts)," Kumar shot back.

As per their belief, in an unnatural death, the spirit converts into a ghost and causes evils to the society. To control the spirit, they need the help of their spiritual leader ‘the ojha’. The tribal belief in re-birth and as per their system, they either burn or bury the dead bodies. Though the tribes worship different Gods, but primarily their religious cult stands on the purity of nature and simple code of conduct.

Lalu being a Railway Minister has encoruaed blind faith. Instead of awakening the people. Is this not democratic crime?