text:
User talk:Hephaestos/Archive20031209

Please see my reply in User talk:Schneelocke about the situation in Caribbean Stud Poker.

Was only scanning page over lightly, but somebody on next edit may want to sub corps for core in the first part referring to use of volunteers, if that's the original intent. 65.247.35.18 (gotta go create a handle!) ca 03:30 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * Hurry and make the handle, because I don't know which page you mean! *grin* - Hephaestos 02:34, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)

-

I've read that Cochise was never photographed... are we sure that photo is of Cochise? --Dante Alighieri 18:21, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

- Inquiring minds want to know. I've a question for you at Talk:Kahoolawe - Marshman 18:52, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Did you mean to put Jpsturm back on Votes for deletion/August 28? Angela 01:07, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)
 * Ok. I just thought it was clearer to show which ones had been resolved. I was basing it on what had been done at August 21 but I see now some other dates do still have the discussion in them. Angela 01:15, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Edit war
So your solution to stop an edit war is to participate in it? Interesting.—Eloquence

Here's my proposal: Let's leave the page in its traditional format for now. That is in line with generally accepted Wikipedia policy and the community process. We have all the time in the world to argue about its format and to vote on a decision. I guarantee you that I will not delay this decision making process so if you really like the new format, and if there is large support for it, then it should be back up and running in no time. But I do not like the way this was done in violation of the standard procedure in such cases, as you yourself admit, so let's do this the right way. Peace? —Eloquence

Which one of our legion of vandals is Buddha? (I had a pretty good guess he was a vandal. I was n't quite sure which one yet!) FearÉIREANN 05:43, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * His style reminds me a bit of Lir and he seems to know his ways around the wiki system remarkably well.—Eloquence

 * Possible clue? Angela 05:48, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Good catch Angela, but that doesn't fit either Lir or DW. Their service area would appear to cover Colorado, Arizona and Utah. - Hephaestos 05:59, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

He sounds incredibly like Lir. One of Adam's traits was jumping into disputes to see if he could twist the knife and make them a bit bloodier. Another was creating nonsense articles to prove some theoretical point. This geezer did both, the first in the edit war, the second in his antics over gay lists versus straight lists. And the fact that he knew the location of the protected page page is evidence that this user is not new but very very experienced. FearÉIREANN 06:35, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

And what is the known name of that vandal ? Anthère

So, it is perfectly relevant that this user ask that his user page and talk page are deleted ? Anthère

In any case, Buddha deserves a bit more airtime before we brand him a vandal (apologies to Hep for abusing his talk page for this discussion).—Eloquence 06:51, Sep 7, 2003 (UTC)
 * He at least has something of a sense of humor. See Pyroto.Ark30inf 06:53, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I looked a bit at the history of his contributions.

First, they are limited, certainly did not cause a full day work against a vandal

Second, the contributions to the articles I've looked at look ok by me. Not the contributions of a vandal

Third, he reverted a bunch of times stuff to Erik last save. I saw there was a disagreement with Erik about the deletion page. I see not why someone would be said a vandal and not the other ones doing reversion. Vandal is a quick label here. I would like to see again the definition of a vandal.

In short, I see not entirely why his talk page is protected, and I see not why his pages would not be deleted if he ask for.

Of course, I could have missed the point entirely.

 * Sorry if I cannot give Buddha the benefit of the doubt. It is clear to me that this person showed up in force simply because the List of heterosexuals page was in danger of deletion, and has wasted the time of several people over almost an entire day in troll-like obtuse non-argument, disruption of the system, and after the page was deleted (check the log) repeatedly tried to re-instate it.  This person is someone who has a regular account here, knows the system, and cowardly came on today to cause trouble.  This person deserves no more air time before being branded a vandal. - Hephaestos 06:56, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * why did people lose time with him then ?

 * Looking back, I have no idea. - Hephaestos

 * This is so typical :-))))

 * But yes, this is obviously a regular ;-)

Sorry! I was going to go back and disambiguate the other William Bowyer. I should have done that first so I would have realised he was a printer too. I've reverted it now. Angela 22:00, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Okay, my user blocking code at http://test.wikipedia.org is ready for testing now. -- Tim Starling 01:34, Sep 8, 2003 (UTC)
 * Doesn't seem to be on yet (for user "The Admin") - Hephaestos 01:49, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Could you delete again the article with Chinese title (which appears as strange symbols on some browsers)? I have written a remark to the author, who doesn't seem to realise what the problem is. wshun 04:21, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Wikibooks
Hey Hephaestos, have you hung out at the Wikibooks site at all ? -- karlwick

A belated thank you for the image of Daniel Morgan. I've always had difficulty with images. Lou I 02:12, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

In case you haven't read, Andrewa has some feedback (CriticismIsFeedback) for you at village pump. Martin

Hi Hep, I've put a complaint about BuddhaInside's behaviour on the w-list. In the meantime, would you consider protecting his talk page to leave criticism of him in situ. He seems determined to blank the page to hide criticism. I've reverted it a couple of times. I'd prefer if someone else protected it. (One solution might be to move his talk page en bloc onto his main page and protecting it there, so that people could continue to leave messages on the talk page but past comments could be protected and in view. lol FearÉIREANN 22:40, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for changing the Popular music page back. Stupidly I reverted it before checking it rather than after and then Wikipedia started going too slow for me to be able to edit the page and change it back. Angela 02:42, Sep 22, 2003 (UTC)

I'm hoping to wring just one concession out of him. Maybe I'm a starry-eyed optimist. BuddhaInside has two bugaboos: eliminating bias and enhancing consistency. Much of what he's done has been in pursuit of these goals; while he's a shit-disturber, to be sure, he's not a "standard" troll. -- Cyan 02:26, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Shall we say, his unique perception of what constitutes bias, then? Have a look at User talk:Cyan/archive, about a third of the way down. -- Cyan 02:32, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I have emailed you about a private matter. -- Cyan 02:50, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with the main page... -- Cyan 03:02, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * That's because Angela fixed it. RickK 03:03, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Please block BuddhaInside NOW. RickK

Very nice job on Gompers! Bcorr 15:34, 26 Sep 2003 (UTC)
 * Thanks!  :) - Hephaestos

Thanks for unblocking those IPs. I didn't realise it was a GFDL site. Angela 07:40, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Could you visit Antinous and fix my caption as you did for Herschel Grynszpan? - I don't know how to do this. Thanx Adam 02:32, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Whatever u think best. See also Archibald Fountain :) Adam

Re images: Thanx for that, I save them all as jpegs but I don't really know what I'm doing in this area - I'm a bit of a techno-dummy I'm afraid.

You don't really think "1990's" is correct do you? The redundant plural apostrophe is a major phobia of mine. Adam 05:37, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)

image of Fulbright
Thanks for adding an image to the article I just wrote, J. William Fulbright. Alas, it doesn't display in the article.

When I went to view it at

 * http://en2.wikipedia.org/upload/3/3b/JWilliamFulbright.jpeg

I got his error msg:

 * The requested URL /upload/3/3b/JWilliamFulbright.jpeg was not found on this server.

Maybe something to do with the www/en2 thing? Can you see it? -- Viajero 18:43, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

PS How did you upload it? I just went to Special:Upload and got an error msg;

 * Sorry, uploads have been disabled on this server.

-- Viajero 18:54, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Uploads have been switching back and forth between servers lately; I used www.wikipedia.org today (and I think it should show up on that server, probably won't propagate to en2 for a day or so I'm guessing). - Hephaestos 18:59, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Thanks for undoing Angela's move. As a Brit, I guess she didn't know the name. BTW, still can't see the image, on either www or en2 :-((( Oh well, I guess it will turn up one of these days...  Best, Viajero 09:34, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Very weird; I don't see it any more either. I was going to upload it again but now that function is apparently disabled on both servers.  Guess it'll have to wait a bit. - Hephaestos 17:22, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Unfortunately, all my favorite restaurants are now gone. The Aquavit was my last hope, though it could hardly be considered haute cuisine. The killjoys wouldn't even let you smoke a cigar after supper. I'm picking up a friend at the airport and taking them to supper, and Stefano's, in Burnsville, is the best I could think of. I really should get out more... UninvitedCompany 22:00, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Did you add the image to the Dolley Madison page? Is it a photograph? Could you add a caption about it to the page? Thanks. Rmhermen 17:53, Oct 8, 2003 (UTC)

Copyvio
Hi, is there any reason you removed the :Talk:PAGE NAME/temp from the copyvio boilerplate? It is what had been decided on at Copyright violations on history pages and Wikipedia talk:Possible copyright infringements. Angela 03:08, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)

 * I'm changing it back so no more issues with the history pages occur. If there was a reason for your removing it, please can you unrevert and let me know why. Thanks. Angela 04:26, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)

 * It does seem complicated, I agree. But this seems to be the only way to stop people rewriting straight over the top and preserving the copyvio in the history. As it mostly applies to newbies, it needs to be as clear to them as possible how to get a temp page. I don't think that just telling to do it on a temp page would help without the link being there.

 * Anyway, you don't need to use a boilerplate for it since the introduction of the Cleanup page. Just list the page on there and say copyvio (with or without the address it might be a copyvio from) and then whoever is looking after the cleanup page can take it to the copyvio page and add the boilertext etc. Angela 04:41, Oct 9, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry for not getting back earlier. Re the list of articles from what appears to be our Cleopatra nut: they look distinctly dodgy but I don't know enough about the area to say definitively that it is bs. I just strongly suspect that it is rubbish. I'd suggest they should be listed on the VfD and see the reaction. Drawing attention to them might expose their nonsense. FearÉIREANN 21:06, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hi Hep, thanks for supporting my adminship application :) Arwel 12:10, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)

article name
Hi, can you help me with something? I recently wrote an article called Bolivian Gas War. Svertigo just changed the name to Bolivian Gas Conflict. Indeed, it is not a "war" in the literal sense, which I indicated in the intro, but this is what people are referring to as, in Bolivia as well. Google doesn't return a single hit for "Bolivian Gas Conflict". What is your opinion? Please reply on Talk:Bolivian Gas Conflict. If you agree with the original name, perhaps you could move it back. Thanks. -- Viajero 00:18, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Thanks (again) for helping sort this out! I owe you one... -- Viajero 17:04, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)
 * No problem; still checking to see that all the links are right though, this was a tricky one. :) - Hephaestos 17:09, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Damn, is that your G5? *jealous* .. Evercat 20:06, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
Why did you erase my changes to the Iraq and WMD article? I think my alterations were very reasonable and kept all the relevant information. The "changed its position" talk makes it seem like there was a shifting and inconsistent US policy, when in fact the increased demand came about because Saddam failed to meet the penultimate deadline (his "last chance"). I don't think my efforts should just be reverted with no explanation.

Also, on PNAC you took out the words devious and sinister as POV. Obviously, those are not neutral in isolation, but the context was allegedly devious and considered sinister, which is I think accurate. I don't really care either way, but I don't understand your objection. -- VV 22:41, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Okay, well, I don't agree US policy was shifting and inconsistent, at least not very much so, and anyway my own phrasing makes it clear that there was a change in demand, without the excess baggage that it was a change in position; it also makes it clearer that the demand was that Saddam leave Iraq. It thus seems more neutral and more informative. But I will attempt to integrate your concern. As for PNAC, I find your response puzzling. The text was This quote (allegedly publishing their devious plans) is considered the "proof" of a sinister plot.... How can you deny that? -- VV 23:35, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Great, I saw the new version, and I think it addresses both our concerns. As for the text on PNAC, the indefinite article strongly indicates that considered applies to "the proof of a sinister plot", not just "the proof"; the "allegedly" qualifier, however, is ambiguous since "their plans" might exist anyway, but in context it should be clear that it is the misquoters who claim there was any plan at all. Anyway, as I said, it doesn't really matter, as it doesn't seem to affect the text's impact. Lastly, you noted that you don't know who's right, but if you want it's pretty easy to check for yourself; see RAD, the first page and a half of Chapter V (pp.50-51), and see if this version of the Wikipedia page, which had this claim for about five months, tells the truth (e.g., no mention of Iraq at all). -- VV 21:59, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

How about adding the link on George W. Bush rather than replacing it? I for one quite like Letterman's Top 10 lists and given the choice, would have preferred to have access to it when viewing his page. MikeSchinkel 18:24, 26 Oct 2003 (UTC)

For a while, SQL queries were entirely disabled for admins. They now seem to be enabled again. I don't know why -- at a guess I'd say Brion did it. Eloquence didn't consult Brion before he disabled them. There are indeed off peak hours: see http://en.wikipedia.org/stats/usage_200310.html under "hourly usage". If you run a query which takes a long time, and you can't use the rest of the site while it is running, please don't just click "stop", wander off and have lunch. Contact me or Brion and ask to have the query killed. Do you have the developer contact list? -- Tim Starling 06:59, Oct 29, 2003 (UTC)

Hello Hephaestos! It seems you have a stalker, i reverted the changes in your page done by some wacko. Is this usual?!? Btw, you discovered wikipedia on my birthday, a nice one, full of massacres and catastrophes... Cheers, Muriel Gottrop 23:51, 1 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Hi, re Grackle. I think ITIS is out on a limb here. I have two recent North American field guides, and several European guides, all put the grackles in Icteridae, and so does the influential Icterids of the World. Although there are some differences in passerine taxonomy, this really shouldn't be one of them. The taxonomy for northern hemisphere species in Wikipedia is from the Handbook of the Birds of the World, really just to have a consistent system, but it is heavily influenced by modern American taxonomy. Keep it in Icteridae.

I don't appreciate your moving Kyiv and replacing all mentions of it with "Kiev". This is not the name that scholarly works, travel guides, and the Ukrainian goverment use for the city. It transcends mere issues of transliteration. "Kiev" is the Russian name of the city, and why should we call the Ukrainian capital by the name given to it by what many see as foreign oppressors. I've moved everything back. Please follow the latest Wikipedia custom in putting cities at their current name, with redirects at anachrostic forms. Kricxjo 02:59, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * WIkipedia puts things at their most common English names, not their most politically correct name. "Kiev" gets 2,210,000 Google hits. "Kyiv" gets 387,000. Since we're descriptive, not proscriptive, Kiev wins. And probably will continue to be, until "Chicken Kyiv" gets put on menus. -- Someone else 03:29, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Did you even read what I wrote? After independence the name of the city has been Kyiv in scholarly works, travel guides, and by the Ukrainian government in its English-language communications. Wire services have als changed the name. Take a look at, for example, the Lonely Planet guide to Ukraine, which uses "Kyiv" throughout and educates the reader that the former name is anachronistic. Some people still say "Kiev", but they are usually not very knowledgable on the current state of the country. Look at the Mumbai or Kolkata examples, for Pete's sake. The community has already been over this. Kricxjo 03:22, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * As I said, Mumbai and Kolkata don't apply; they have already been accepted into English (very quickly I might add!) Kiyv will, I'm sure, eventually be accepted into English too, but it's not now. When it happens, the article will be moved, not until. - Hephaestos 03:34, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I put a lot of work into my articles and I think captions are both necessary and expected, even when there is no doubt who the photo is of. I have contributed something like 100 articles with photos and they all have captions. I don't make trivial edits to your articles so please don't do it to mine. Adam 14:01, 9 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I don't mind at all being copy-edited. I make frequent typos when in the heat of writing and I am grateful when other people correct them. I do mind when people change things which I have clearly intended to do, for no particularly good reason (such as improving the article). Adam 14:14, 9 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Richard Neustadt
It looks like Wir and Lir are at it again on Richard Neustadt. It may need to be protected yet again. I'd rather not get involved just now. Care to do the honors? -- Viajero 19:28, 10 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Heads up. Somebody is impersonating you on meta.
Someone is signing as you on the talk page of the list of Michael pseudonyms. He is asking, "as Hephaestos" to reinstate all edits by Michael. Hah! -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick 23:22, Nov 10, 2003 (UTC)

Well, I alerted Angela, before giving you the heads up. After that I tried to find the list of admins on meta, without success. Maybe we need a central list of all sysops on all wikipedias, which is maintained and synchronized on all wikipedias, so everybody knows who to contact. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick 23:35, Nov 10, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Heph, you sure are a frequent cible :-) I blocked one name on en and one ip on meta against you in the past 2 days. I just wanted to tell/remind you I was sysop on meta if needed. I often goes there, and will be quite avail on en from now on. If you need, just drop me a word. :-) Anthère

Sandbox
Hello. I'm a bit confused about the sandbox. Your edit summary to Raqs al Sharqi says "restoring content. DO NOT MOVE THE SANDBOX". Do you mean the person who originally did this shouldn't? Or someone (like me) trying to fix it shouldn't? I think the sandbox needs to be moved to Raqs al sharqi and Raqs al sharqi needs to be moved to the sandbox. The page history of Raqs al sharqi clearly shows that used to be the sandbox, but I'm not sure if your comment meant no-one should move it, so I'll leave it for now. Perhaps you could fix it or let me know so I can. Thanks. Angela

Thank you for your recent edit to my Nudibranch article. You did a very good job cleaning up the page, and the addition of that taxobox helped a lot. Sincerly yours, Alexandros 03:15, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

By making such statements as the following, your brillance is only exceeded by your good looks. NightCrawler 17:28, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

NightCrawler
Judging from style, behavior and similarity in controversies, I have suspected for quite some time that User:NightCrawler and hard-banned User:DW are one and the same person. I was willing to let it go for a while since there didn't seem to be too many problems, but now I see this person is driving off good new contributors (see User talk:Petermanchester. Could developers look into IP comparison to confirm or deny this suspicion?  Thank you. - Hephaestos 17:08, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Knights Templar Article What gives you the right to say whats not relevant to the article? the Modern organization IS very relevant. I even listed it as the MODERN organization. I will keep posting that link there.

well, there must be some sort of compromise. I think that link is very relevant and I dont see how it could not be. I have readily identified it as the modern organization. Putting it on the talk page defeats the purpose.

Hephaestos, my apologies for not knowing that protocols. That is more than fair enough. You have my full support. Hopefully no hard feelings. Justin L. Smith 02:39, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * No of course no hard feelings. :)  I've seen you do some good work here since you started an account, and knew this had to be just a short-lived misunderstanding. - Hephaestos 02:42, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Well it helped that I realized that you are not just some idiots who disagree with me on something; you are veteran wikipedia users who have the integrity of the community in mind. I have been reading wikipedia articles for over a year before i finally realized what one can do with it. Im not that good with computers so that also played a role. Im glad we cleared this up. Justin L. Smith 02:51, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Even veteran Wikipedians can be a bit slow in going to the talk pages when warranted, which unfortunately I think I exemplified myself this evening. *grin* Looking forward to working with you. - Hephaestos 02:55, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

And I with you as well. Justin L. Smith 03:02, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Heph, could you please protect Mecca, as well? RickK 07:19, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * I did it since you'd edited the page. Angela
 * Sorry, just noticed your message to RickK. Do unprotect if you think it was unnecessary. Angela 07:25, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Ever considered protecting your user page? You seem to get a lot of vandalism on there. Just a thought. -- Mattworld 19:20, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Hi, Hephaestos -- I had a complaint here, but Angela politely pointed out to me it was a) in the wrong place and consequently b) largely full of crap. I'm going to go make it in the right place. Trontonian 16:04, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the note. I'd already made a complaint on the suggested page, and then it disappeared. But I'm not getting Wikinoid about that. An interesting discussion on the ban page. I realize that things may look far different from your perspective, so the more discussion the better. Trontonian 17:57, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * After further research I find it's still there--I was referred to two different pages. Trontonian
 * As you were already aware. Thanks for not mentioning that.

Hi. Are you sure Image:Kookaburra.ogg is actually an ogg-encoded file? I couldn't play it with xmms which can play other ogg files. Also, konqueror identified it as "AIFF/Amiga Audio". Cheers, snoyes 17:58, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for moving the rest of those Livery Company pages. I was working through them last night but they bored me to sleep eventually so it was a nice surprise to see them all finished this morning. :) Angela

I'm not sure it was a good idea to delete Jim Dine. I think that could have scared him off. Im sure your intentions were good however. Alexandros 02:37, 25 Nov 2003 (UTC)

marbled godwit picture
thanks for fixing this - and I see how it's done, I'll know next time. seglea 05:00, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Would it be worth someone nominating Mydogategodshat again? I was thinking of writing something along the lines of "Excellent contributions, and this user has now shown that he will not give up his ideals (submission to seemingly irrational orders to change username) in order to gain more power (adminship). This demonstrates that he is unlikely to abuse or be corrupted by admin powers.". But I decided a potential second nomination would probably be better by someone other than me, though. (Asking a few people this.) Κσυπ Cyp    13:11, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. Danny 02:34, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for protecting Hank Eskin. Angela 21:05, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Article
Not trying to start an edit war or anything, it just happened that my edit happened same time as yours. I have two reliable sources that say Kearny's birthday is 6-2 1815, and I'll change back the side of the picture. Those two sources both say Columbia university (those sources being civilwarhome.com and the 1911 Encyclopedia). ugen64 21:59, Dec 1, 2003 (UTC)

Is this how regular talks go between users, replying on other users' names? I've never had to do it, but I suppose this is how... anyway, says 1815 (which was your second example), so... what is up with his birthdate :-\ ugen64 22:09, Dec 1, 2003 (UTC)

Good call on that whole G5 thing
I did make a bit of a mess of it.Boffy b 23:05, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi, just to let you know, Jimbo advised that Hank Eskin be deleted, so I deleted it, recreated it as a redirect and reprotected the redirect. Angela 00:22, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC)

==THank you for the excellent (and fast) aid on the Operations Silver & Gold entries. Paul
 * You're very welcome. I think Gold still needs some formatting done, but I'm pondering how to best do it.  I may get to it later. - Hephaestos

I see that you moved Unam Sanctam to Wikisource. That's fine because it is a text that belongs there. However, in putting it there you made it an orphan at Wikisource (I've fixed that where I've also renamed it "Unam Sanctam (English)), and you also created three broken links in Wikipedia. Perhaps you could fix those broken links.   ☮ Eclecticology 21:21, 2003 Dec 3 (UTC)

 * I'm confused; with the exception of five minutes today, the links on Wikipedia have been "broken" as long as they've existed (quite some time, even the one on the talk page). I suppose I could write up a stub article but I don't really know a lot about the subject. (I also wasn't aware that orphan articles on Wikisource were frowned upon, I rather thought most of them were orphans. I'll add to the authors page from now on when placing items there.) - Hephaestos 23:52, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

It was just the revert which did not work, because there was nothing to revert, the vandal removed his garbage himself. I did a dummy edit (added one space character) and it worked. andy 17:01, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Why did you restore Dervish? It was nothing but a dictionary definition, and looked strongly like a copyvio. RickK 04:37, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

You just locked Dershowitz-Finkelstein Affair after it had been blanked, so the current protected version is the vandalised revision. Alexandros 15:24, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * OK. I just wasn't sure you were aware of that. I'm not involved in that page, but it looks like a silly fight to me. Alexandros

Thank you. A little edit here, a little edit there, and next thing you know you're writing whole paragraphs and might as well log in :) Salsa Shark 08:24, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I really appreciate what you've done at Heroic medicine. I wasn't sure what to do for that article, short of a rollback. And that would have lead to Mr. NH flaming me, and accomplished nothing in the long run. -- Pakaran 07:45, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * On a related note, Mr. NH has been quite busy at VFD the past half-hour or so. His ideas of NPOV seem to be quite unique.  You might want to take a look.  -- Pakaran 07:54, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Agreed on both counts. I like what's been done with his user page though - reduces confusion.  -- Pakaran 08:02, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

dagger
Yes, that works. --Jiang, Talk 07:56, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Hephaestos/Archive20031209


text:
The Boys of Summer (book)

The Boys of Summer is a 1972 non-fiction baseball book by Roger Kahn. After recounting his childhood in Brooklyn and his life as a young reporter on the New York Herald Tribune, the author relates some history of the Brooklyn Dodgers up to their victory in the 1955 World Series. He then tracks the lives of the players over the subsequent years as they aged. The title of the book is taken from a Dylan Thomas poem that describes "the boys of summer in their ruin".

Players
The players who made up the core of the 1940s and 1950s Brooklyn Dodger teams and who were described by Kahn as the "Boys of Summer" were: Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Carl Furillo, Joe Black, George Shuba, Andy Pafko, Preacher Roe, and Billy Cox.

Though not covered in the book, pitchers Don Newcombe and Johnny Podres, and outfielder Cal Abrams were also considered a core members of the "Boys of Summer".

Erskine, who died on April 16, 2024, was the last suviving member of the "Boys of Summer".

Reception
Upon publication in 1972, The Boys of Summer was a commercial and critical success. It is often mentioned in discussions of the best baseball books, although some reviewers have criticized it for what they have perceived as excessive sentimentality.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in his New York Times review that the book had "very real shortcomings" including "Mr. Kahn's unremitting tone of veneration, as if all his memories had been removed from the altars of the world's great cathedrals", but nevertheless found it to be "a book that succeeded for me despite almost everything about it."

In contrast to Lehmann-Haupt's criticism, Heywood Hale Broun, in his Chicago Times review, praised Kahn for vividly re-creating a romantic era in the history of American sports and culture through memories "so keen that those of us old enough can weep, and those who are young can marvel at a world where baseball teams were the center of a love beyond the reach of intellect, and where baseball players were worshipped or hated with a fervor that made bubbles in our blood."

George Frazier of The Boston Globe wrote "I cannot conceive that this year, nor next year, nor the year after that, will produce a more important book – a better written one, a more consistently engrossing one than this portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s, as they were in the sinew and swiftness of their youth and as they are now."

Conversely, Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin, while acknowledging that it is "perhaps the most celebrated baseball book of the last 50 years", omitted it from his own 2011 list of best baseball books, saying in agreement with Lehmann-Haupt that he found it "too sentimental, too sugary, when the Brooklyn Dodgers teams Kahn describes were anything but."

In the Los Angeles Times’ first-ever review of The Boys of Summer, Robert Kirsch alludes to the timelessness of the themes Kahn takes up through the lens of his own personal experiences, admitting "without embarrassment" that "this book brought me to tears more than once…and to laughter and to that quiet confrontation with enemy Time."

As of 2015, the book has reportedly sold about 3 million copies in ninety printings. In 2002, a Sports Illustrated panel placed The Boys of Summer second on a list of "The Top 100 Sports Books of All Time", describing it as "a novelistic tale of conflict and change, a tribute, a civic history, a piece of nostalgia and, finally, a tragedy."

A documentary based on the book, written by Marty Bell and narrated by Sid Caesar, was produced in 1983 and released direct-to-video.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Boys of Summer (book)


text:
Music for 18 Musicians

Music for 18 Musicians is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in the Midtown Manhattan Theater District. Following this, a recording of the piece was released on the ECM New Series in 1978.

Composition
In his introduction to the score, Reich mentions that although the piece is named Music for 18 Musicians, it is not necessarily advisable to perform the piece with that few players due to the extensive need for musicians to perform on multiple instruments.

The piece is based on a cycle of eleven chords. A small piece of music is based on each chord, and the piece returns to the original cycle at the end. The sections are named "Pulses", and Section I–XI. This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger ensembles, and the extension of performers resulted in a growth of psychoacoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, and he noted that he would like to "explore this idea further". A prominent factor in this work is the augmentation of the harmonies and melodies and the way that they develop this piece. Another important factor in the piece is the use of human breath, used in the clarinets and voices, which help structure and bring a pulse to the piece. The player plays the pulsing note for as long as they can hold it, while each chord is melodically deconstructed by the ensemble, along with augmentation of the notes held. The metallophone (unplugged vibraphone), is used to cue the ensemble to change patterns or sections.

Some sections of the piece have a chiastic ABCDCBA structure, and Reich noted that this one work contained more harmonic movement in the first five minutes than any other work he had previously written.

Recordings
There have been many performances of the piece, and several commercial recordings:
 * The original ECM version played by Steve Reich and Musicians (1978)
 * The Nonesuch version, played by Reich and musicians along with new musicians, a new recording of which is included on Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995 (1997/2015)
 * The Ensemble Modern version (1999)
 * The Amadinda Percussion Group version, a live concert recording (2003)
 * The Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble version (2007)
 * This 2007 Innova release, the first recorded in surround sound, has received critical praise, including from Steve Reich.
 * 'Music for 18 Musicians (Rough Fields Overdubbed Version)' by Rough Fields (solo)
 * The Harmonia Mundi version, played by Ensemble Signal. (2015)
 * The Erik Hall solo version (2020)
 * Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals (2023)
 * This 2023 recording is available in Dolby Atmos.

The version on Works 1965–1995 lasts just over an hour.

The remix album Reich Remixed includes an interpretation of Music for 18 Musicians by the British duo Coldcut.

Structure
With only 18 musicians, the parts are divided as follows:

 * 1) violin
 * 2) cello
 * 3) female voice
 * 4) female voice
 * 5) female voice
 * 6) piano
 * 7) piano
 * 8) piano and maracas
 * 9) marimba and maracas
 * 10) marimba and xylophone
 * 11) marimba and xylophone
 * 12) marimba and xylophone
 * 13) metallophone and piano
 * 14) piano and marimba
 * 15) marimba, xylophone, and piano
 * 16) clarinet and bass clarinet
 * 17) clarinet and bass clarinet
 * 18) female voice and piano

title: Music for 18 Musicians


text:
Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliament (MP) of the Lok Sabha.

He entered politics at Patna University as a student leader and in 1977 at the age of 29, was elected as the youngest member of the Lok Sabha for the Janata Party. He became the Chief Minister of Bihar in 1990. His party came to power in 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election in partnership with Nitish Kumar of JD(U). This coalition ended when Nitish resigned and RJD was ousted, becoming the opposition party. In 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, RJD remained the single largest party in Bihar, and along with JD(U) in power after JD(U) rejoined MGB in 2022, headed the government until JD(U) returned to NDA. Lalu Yadav was convicted in the controversial Fodder Scam, and was serving a term until 17 April 2021, when he was granted bail from the High Court.

Early life and education
Lalu Prasad, second of his parents six sons, was born in Phulwariya village (on Gopalganj-Kushinagar highway NH-27) in Gopalganj district of Bihar to Kundan Ray and Marachhiya Devi, and attended a local middle school before moving to Patna with his elder brother.

After completing Bachelor of Laws and a M.A. in Political Science from B. N. College of Patna University, he worked as clerk in Bihar Veterinary College at Patna where his elder brother was also a peon. Lalu Prasad belongs to Yadav agricultural caste. He turned down Patna University's Honorary Doctorate in 2004.

Personal life and family
Lalu Prasad Yadav married Rabri Devi on 1 June 1973, in an arranged marriage, and they went on to have seven daughters and two sons.

 * eldest daughter: Misa Bharti
 * 2nd daughter: Rohini Acharya Yadav
 * 3rd daughter: Chanda Yadav
 * 4th daughter: Ragini Yadav - married to Rahul Yadav, Samajwadi Party leader
 * 5th daughter: Hema Yadav
 * 6th daughter: Anushka Yadav (Dhannu) - married to Chiranjeev Rao
 * elder son: Tej Pratap Yadav
 * youngest daughter: Raj Lakshmi Yadav - married to Tej Pratap Singh Yadav
 * younger son: Tejashwi Yadav

Note: Rahul Yadav is son of Jitendra Yadav, former MLC from the Samajwadi Party. Jitendra is the nephew of former MP D. P. Yadav.

1970–1990: Student leader and youngest MP
In 1970, Lalu entered in student politics as the general secretary of the Patna University Students' Union (PUSU), became its president in 1973, joined Jai Prakash Narayan' Bihar Movement in 1974 where he became sufficiently close to Janata Party (JP) leaders to become the Janta alliance's winning candidate in the 1977 Lok Sabha election from Chapra at the age of 29. In 1979, the Janata Party government fell due to in-fighting. The parliament was dissolved with new polls held in 1980. Lalu quit Janta party to join the splinter group, Janta Party-S led by Raj Narain, only to lose the re-election in 1980. He managed to win Bihar Legislative Assembly election later in 1980, and again in 1985 to become leader of opposition in Bihar assembly in 1989. Later in 1989, he was also elected for Lok Sabha under V. P. Singh government. By 1990, he positioned himself as the leader of Yadav (11.7% of the Bihar's) and lower castes. Muslims, who had traditionally served as Congress (I) vote bank, shifted their support to Prasad after the 1989 Bhagalpur violence. He became popular among the young voters of Bihar.

1990–1997: Lalu Yadav as Chief Minister of Bihar
In 1990, Janata Dal came to power in Bihar. PM V. P. Singh wanted former chief minister Ram Sundar Das to lead the government. and Chandra Shekhar backed Raghunath Jha. To break deadlock deputy PM Devi Lal nominated Prasad as CM candidate. He was victorious in an internal poll of Janta Dal MLA's and became the chief minister. On 23 September 1990, Prasad arrested L. K. Advani at Samastipur during the latter's Ram Rath Yatra to Ayodhya, which establish himself as a secular leader among the people of Bihar. The World Bank lauded his party for its work in the 1990s on the economic front. In 1993, Prasad adopted a pro-English policy and pushed for the re-introduction of English as a language in school curriculum, contrary to the angrezi hatao (banish English) policy of then Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. Policy of opposition to English was considered an anti-elite policy since both the Yadav leaders represented the same social constituents – the backward castes, dalits and minority communities. With the mass support of people of Bihar, Lalu continued to be Bihar CM.

1997–2000: Formation of RJD and National Politics
In 1997, due to allegation related to Fodder Scam, a leadership revolt surfaced in Janta Dal, consequently Lalu broke away from Janta Dal and formed a new political party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In 1998 general for 12th Lok Sabha Lalu won from Madhepura, but lost in 1999 general election to Sharad Yadav. In 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election he won and remained in opposition.

2000–2005:Rabri Devi as Chief Ministers of Bihar
In 2002, Lalu was elected in Rajya Sabha where he stayed until 2004. In 2002, RJD formed the government with Rabri Devi as the CM. Except for brief President rule and 7 days term of Nitish Kumar, RJD remained in power in Bihar until 2005.

2004–2009: Union Minister of Railway
In May 2004, Lalu Yadav contested general election from Chhapra and Madhepura against Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sharad Yadav respectively and won from both the seats with a huge margin with the great support and faith of people of Bihar. In total, RJD won 21 seats and it allied with Indian National Congress becoming second-largest member of UPA I after Congress. Lalu Yadav became the Railway Minister in the 2004 UPA Government. Later, he gave up the Madhepura seat.

As railway minister, Lalu Yadav left passenger fares untouched and focused on other sources of revenue for the railways. He banned plastic cups from being used to serve tea at railway stations and replaced those with kulhars (earthen cups), in order to generate more employment in rural areas. Later, he also said that he had plans to introduce buttermilk and khādī. In June 2004, he announced that he would get on the railway himself to inspect its problems and went on to board the train from Patna Railway station at midnight.

When he took over, the Indian Railways was a loss-making organisation. In the years under his leadership, it showed a cumulative total profit of. Business schools around the world became interested in Lalu Yadav's leadership in managing the turnaround. The turnaround was introduced as a case study by the Indian Institute of Management. Yadav also received invitations from eight Ivy League schools for lectures, and addressed over a hundred students from Harvard, Wharton and others in Hindi. In 2006, the Harvard Business School and HEC Management School, France, have shown interest in turning Lalu Yadav's experiment with the Indian Railway into case studies for aspiring business graduates.

In 2009, Yadav's successor Mamata Banerjee and the opposition parties alleged that the so-called turnaround of the Railways during his tenure was merely a result of presenting financial statements differently. A 2011 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) endorsed this view. CAG found that the "surplus" shown on the financial statements during Yadav's tenure covered "cash and investible surplus", which were not included in the "net surplus" figures released by the Railways in the earlier years. The "cash surplus" included the money available for paying dividend, contribution to the Depreciation Reserve Fund used for renewal or replacement of existing assets, and other funds for investment. The "investible surplus" included the money allocated for capital expenditure. The report concluded that the performance of the Railways actually declined marginally during the last few years of Lalu's tenure.

2005–2015: Out of power in Bihar and Center
Bihar Assembly elections were held twice in the year 2005. There was a fractured verdict in February 2005 Assembly Election. Since no government could be formed in Bihar, fresh elections were held in October–November the same year. In November 2005 state elections RJD won 54 seats, less than both Janata Dal United (JDU) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nitish Kumar led coalition, consisting of JD(U) and BJP, came to power. In the 2010 elections, the RJD tally was reduced to just 22 seats whereas the ruling alliance claimed a record 206 out of the 243 Assembly seats. In 2009 general election RJD won 4 seats and provided outside support to Manmohan Singh government. In May 2012, Lalu Prasad Yadav envisaged Hamid Ansari, previous vice-president, as a presidential candidate. In May 2013, Lalu Yadav tried to rejuvenate the party and fuel the party workers in his Parivartan Rally. After the conviction in Fodder Scam on 3 October 2013, Yadav was disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha. In 2014 general election, Lalu Yadav's RJD again won 4 seats.

2015–current: Grand Alliance
In the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, Lalu Yadav's RJD became the largest party with a total of 81 seats. He along with his partner Nitish Kumar of JD(U) had the absolute majority to form a government in Bihar. This was cited as a major comeback for the RJD and for Lalu Yadav on the political stage of Bihar after a gap of 10 years. But that suffocating alliance did not last long as Nitish Kumar dumped and ousted Lalu's party from the power and alliance in July 2017 after the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation lodged several criminal cases against Lalu's son and Deputy Chief Minister, Tejashwi Yadav.

Positions held
Lalu Prasad Yadav has been elected 4 times as MLA and 5 times as Lok Sabha MP.

Note:
 * 2004: Re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha (4th term) from Chapra and Madhepura; retained Chapra. Appointed Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Railways in UPA govt. Lalu, wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and daughter Misa Bharti booked for railway tender bribery scam, disproportionate illegal property and income tax evasion cases in 2017.
 * 2009: Re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha (5th term). Contested two seats. Lost from Pataliputra but won from Saran, and disqualified in 2013 subsequent to his conviction in the first fodder scam case. And barred from contesting elections for 6 years.

Populist policies and consolidation of lower castes
According to Seyed Hossein Zarhani, although Laloo Prasad became a hate figure among Forward Castes, he drew huge support from backward castes and Dalits. He was criticised for neglecting development, but a study conducted during his reign, among downtrodden Musahars revealed that despite the construction of houses for them not being concluded at required pace, they are obliged to choose him as their leader as he returned them their ijjat (honour) and for the first time they are allowed to vote as per their own wishes. A number of populist policies which directly impacted his "Backward Caste" supporters were launched during his tenure. Some of these being establishment of Charvaha schools, where children of poor could get skilled; abolishment of cess on toddy and making of the negligence of rules related to reservation for "Backward Castes" as cognizable offence. Yadav mobilised 'Backwards' through his identity politics. According to his conception, Forward Castes were elite in the outlook and thus he portrayed himself as, "Messiah of Backwards" by ensuring that his way of living remain identical to his supporters who were mostly poor. He even continued to reside in his quarter of one room after getting elected as Chief Minister, though later he moved to official residence of the CM for administrative convenience.

Another significant event during his regime was the recruitment of 'Backward Castes' and communities to government services in large numbers. The government's white paper claimed to have significant number of vacancies in health sector and similar manpower crunch existed across various sectors. The rules of recruitment were changed drastically in order to benefit "Backward Castes", who supported him. The frequent transfer of existing officers, who were at the higher echelon of bureaucracy was also an important feature of Yadav and Rabri Devi's regime. These developments led to collapse of administration and entire system. Yadav however continued to rule Bihar due to massive support from "Backward Castes" as well as his emphasis on "honour" which he considered more important than the development. Thus according to Zarhani, for the lower caste he was a charismatic leader who was capable to become the voice of those who were silent for long.

Another form of mobilisation of his Dalit supporters by Laloo Yadav was popularising all those folk heroes of lower castes, who were said to have vanquished the upper caste adversaries. One such example is of a popular Dalit saint who was revered as he not only ran away with an upper caste girl but also suppressed all her kins. Praising him could enrage Bhumihar caste in some parts of Bihar. There is a grand celebration every year at a particular place near Patna and Yadav participates in this fair with pomp and show. His energetic participation in this show makes it a rallying point for Dalits, who saw it as their victory and the harassment of upper castes.

According to Kalyani Shankar, Yadav created a feeling amongst the oppressed that they are real rulers of state under him. He continuously lambasted the oppressors on the behalf of the oppressed and led to their emergence as the pivot of political power. The upper caste, who composed just 13.2% of the population, were controlling most of the land while the 'Backwards', who were 51%, own very little land. The advent of Lalu led to a drastic change in the economic profile of the state, followed by the diversification of the occupation of the 'Backwards' and increase in land owned by them.

Yadav also instilled a sense of confidence among Muslims by stopping Lal Krishna Advani's controversial "Rath yatra". Muslims of Bihar were feeling a sense of insecurity after the ghastly 1989 Bhagalpur riots. The Satyendra Narayan Singh government failed to control law and order situation thus death toll reached over 1000. The people affected were mostly poor weavers and others belonging to low strata of society and hence they were looking for a leader who could control the deteriorating situation of state under Congress. According to Kalyani, during this period upper castes were totally marginalised and 'Backwards' came to control the power firmly.

Emergence as the leader of plebeians
During his tenure, Yadav never tried to emulate the erstwhile elite chief ministers. He took part in the public festivals and popularised his famous Kurta far Holi (cloth tearing Holi). On this occasion his invitees and the media persons would reach his house shouting: Kaha Chhupal hai Lalu Sala (Where is the bloody Lalu hiding ?). Yadav also responded in a similar abusive tone. The vulgar songs were also played on the occasion. Besides this, he never hesitated in calling himself as a son of poor Goala (herder). During his public celebration of Holi festival, he used to play the Dhol himself and dance on the beat of Jogira song. Yadav's rallies were called railla, a symbol of masculinity. Those participating in these rallies were supposed to carry a lathi, a robust stick, which was both the symbol of "masculinity" as well as the chief weapon of a "herder", who used it to manage his cows. The drinking of Bhang, a natural liquor and sitting the whole night to watch the Launda dance (Dance of a Eunuch acting as a woman) made him popular among rural Biharis but all of these obscene activities of a Chief Minister irritated the middle class sensibilities. According to Ashwini Kumar: "An astute mix of lower caste with minority politics therefore helped Lalu Yadav to establish his hold over the political scenario in Bihar. This marked the beginning of, what came to be known as 'Total politics' in which the identity of caste, class and religion came to be manipulated and exploited by the new state elite to retain and remain in power forever. As opposed to the traditional Congress-centric secular politics, the new secular politics of Lalu Yadav was non Brahmanical, vernacular and popular."

Confrontation with bureaucracy and other policies
With the coming in power of Yadav, the representation of OBC saw a spurt in the legislative assembly of state. The upper-caste were at great disadvantage due to the new caste composition of the state legislature. In his second tenure, when the elections of 1995 took place in the state, the OBC legislators became 49.69 per cent in the assembly and the upper caste legislators fell to 17.28 per cent, a massive decline since 1960s (In 1995 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections, only 61 upper caste legislators were elected, while the number of Backward Caste legislators was 165 ). The domination of the Backwards in the legislature brought it into conflict with the bureaucracy, which was still dominated by the upper-castes. There witnessed  a hike in incidents of  corruption, because the upper-caste bureaucrats utilised the 'lack of knowledge' in administration of the new legislators (from the OBC background) to stealthily sabotage and subvert constructive policies of the Yadav's government.

Since, the administrative class belonged to landed class of upper caste; the Thakur, Bhumihar, Kayastha and Brahmin, they aimed at this obstruction, in order to secure not only their personal interest, but also the interest of the social class, they belonged to. The advent of Yadav to power was considered as end of their dominance. Hence, amidst confrontation between the bureaucracy and the legislature, the upper-caste dominated bureaucracy became determined to obstruct the caste based social justice promoted by the Janata Dal government under Yadav. They often resorted to frequent defiance of orders to maintain the status-quo. Hence, the government undermined the bureaucracy, as the government, which is said to have voted to power on the platform of OBC empowerment, was also determined to bring the social justice, even at the cost of administrative disfunction.

At the time, the caste composition of judiciary also mirrored the bureaucracy and latter too come into conflict with the government. In the meantime, in the year 1996, a major scandal was witnessed in the state, which involved embezzlement of billions of rupees from the Animal Husbandry Department of state. Initially, the case was to be investigated by Bihar police, which means, government to be in the control of the investigation, but later the judiciary came into play, and the reservation of the case by Supreme Court for Central Bureau of Investigation, saw Patna High Court assuming charge over the case. The Fodder Scam, as it was called was a new series of conflict between the government on one hand and the CBI and Judiciary at the other hand.

Between 1990 and 2005, the government under Yadav's Janata Dal undertook several measures to strengthen the control of OBCs, Scheduled Caste and Muslims over bureaucracy. Latter were given the powerful position like those of District Magistrate. Transfers of the upper echelon of bureaucracy was also frequently resorted to. In the year 1993, the post of Director General of Police as well as Chief Secretary were both given to officers belonging to lower castes and the incumbent officers, who were both Brahmins were removed. Since the strategy of transfer of unwanted bureaucrats has a limit, Yadav's government was adamant in use of quota to fill these posts with the officials from the subaltern background. If unable to appoint the lower castes, the government chose to keep many posts vacant, to prevent the upper castes from occupying them.

In order to weaken the upper-caste bureaucracy, the scope for intervention in its functioning by the party officials, belonging to Janata Dal was kept open.Hence, increased interference by party activists in the functioning of bureaucracy and police was witnessed. Meanwhile, the resurgence of the OBCs and SCs also resulted in extension of patronage to many of the Bahubalis ( a term representing someone with money and muscle power with criminal background) from these social groups. Yadav is said to have patronised; Pappu Yadav, operating out of Purnea and Madhepura districts; Vinod Yadav, operating out of Bhagalpur district; Surendra Yadav, operating out of Gaya district; Mohammad Shahabuddin, operating out of Siwan district; Makhi Paswan, operating out of Khagaria district; and Mohammed Suleiman, operating out of Kishanganj district. Yadav's aide Brij Bihari Prasad, who was known for his muscle power ended the crime empire of Devendra Dubey, that was spread from East Champaran to Muzaffarpur district. Naxal leaders like Ravindra Singh Kushwaha, who were waging a war against the landlords through various naxal organisations active in the state, were invited to Janata Dal and allotted tickets to contest in assembly election. Subsequently, all the criminal cases against him were dropped, during the premiership of Yadav.

A popular opinion outside Bihar with respect to weakening of bureaucracy and "breakdown of governance" was the presence of rampant corruption and leadership's ineptitude in Yadav's regime. But, according to Jeffrey Witsoe, the RJD deliberately weakened the state institutions controlled by upper-castes in order to empower the lower castes. The OBCs were in control of government but the media and the bureaucracy along with the judiciary was still in control of upper-castes, it was this upper-caste dominance of the other state institutions that the OBC leadership was vying to end by trying to displace the upper-castes effectively from power.

In the meantime, accusations were laid against Yadav's government for fomenting caste based antagonism between various social groups. Various commentators have stressed that under Yadav's Janata Dal rule, the agricultural labourers and untouchables became vocal for respect from the dominant class and the fair wages. Retaliation on the part of lower castes were also seen, when the dominant caste militias tried to quell their revolt on these grounds. In one such case, in December 1991, a dominant caste militia called "Savarna Liberation Front" gangraped and murdered ten Dalit women, in retaliation, the left wing militants all belonging either Dalit or Backward Castes killed thirty five people from the dominant caste. William Dalrymple has chronicled the account of a dominant caste landowner who survived the massacre. The interlocutor of Dalrymple, who declared the incident to be a handiwork of Bihar government under Yadav said: "The government will not protect us. It is on their side. This is the Kali Yug, the epoch of disintegration. The lower castes are rising up. Everything is falling apart."

Another account from the Sargana Gram Panchayat area testifies the change in established socio-political order brought by the government under Yadav. A large Rajput farmer from the Panchayat constituency, who had been a predecessor of the incumbent Mukhiya of the village said: "The Backwards control the Government. In return, the Government pampers the Backwards (Sar pe chadha kar rakha hai). Not only that, they talk about empowering the harijans. They have both ruined the State. To top it all, they say they will protect the Pakistanis (an epithet to describe Muslims)...."

As per one opinion, Yadav extended tacit support to the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC), and in the period of caste wars, he, as a Chief Minister frequently visited the places, where the victims were from Backward Castes. It is opined that many people from these castes voted him, only because he represented their aspiration of speaking back and becoming virile. The poor of the state couldn't gain much in terms of jobs and services of state, but they were no longer left to be treated with disdain. Nandini Gooptu has mentioned some studies from the rural Bihar, belonging to the time period following the coming into power of Yadav, where the Schedule Castes like Musahars became vocal for their rights including wages, for the work they do under 'employment guarantee schemes' of government. In one such study, a Musahar woman was recorded abusing the government officials belonging to Rajput caste for cheating [them] on wages due to them. Similarly, in another case, a Schedule Tribe Santhal was recorded taunting son of a Kayastha landlord. Many changes were observed at the lowest level of governance too; in one such case, a Rajput landlord family was replaced by a Kevat caste man for the post of Mukhiya in a village. These changes in the rural Bihar was found to be remarkable, considering the brutally enforced inequalities persisting therein for years.

In the early years of his rise in political circle, Yadav was also successful in creating defection in the left-wing political parties of the state, which had long history of association with Naxalism. In the areas around Nalanda and Aurangabad, the weakening of the CPI-ML liberation is attributed to the significant rise of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Yadav. The RJD successfully attracted the Koeri and Yadav leadership of the party, thus strengthening itself at the cost of liberation. The leaders of CPI (ML) liberation, who defected to RJD included, Shri Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Umesh Singh, K.D Yadav and Suryadev Singh.

Yadav's rule also led to breaking away of patron-client relationship in elections between the upper castes and the Dalits. The labourers of the upper caste landlords were primarily people from Dalit background, who were forced to vote in the elections as per the wishes of their masters, the upper castes. But, in this period, the agricultural labourers were given free hand in exercising their power to select their representatives. This transformation of the existing system brought political freedom for a large number of Dalits.

Earlier, the primary schools, which served as polling station during the elections used to be present in the upper caste villages. Hence, the Dalits needed to visit the upper caste villages to vote during elections. This was a problematic arrangement as the upper caste used to coerce them to vote their preferred candidate. However, journalist Amberish K Diwanji, who visited many villages in Bihar during 2005 Assembly elections, found that these schools were shifted to lower caste villages, by Lalu Prasad Yadav when he assumed the charge of state in earlier elections. This prevented the upper castes from coercing the Dalits during elections, and latter can exercise their franchise freely. Diwanji also noted that there existed robust social bonding between Yadavs and Musahars in some regions of Madhepura district. As per his report, in this region, the Yadavs had taken the place of upper caste in deciding, to whom the Musahars will vote. But, unlike upper castes, who didn't mingle with the Musahars, the Yadavs, specially the poor ones, considered them as equal. Due to similar economic condition, the poor Yadavs in the region, mingled with the Musahars, their children play with each other and they behaved as a single social unit. Reportedly, this bonding often transforms into votes and Musahars prefers Lalu Prasad Yadav than any other political leader.

In some of the regions of the rural area of South Bihar, after the establishment of rule of Janata Dal under Lalu Prasad Yadav, the realignment in the policy of militant organisations like Maoist Communist Centre was observed. The MCC was dominated by the members of Yadav caste in the leadership position and the Schedule Castes served as the foot soldiers. Before advent of Lalu Prasad Yadav on the scene in 1980s, MCC was waging a "class war", however, after Yadav assumed the premiership of the state the Yadav caste and Schedule Castes of the MCC shifted their loyalty to him. Earlier, the MCC had targeted Rajputs in the Dalelchak-Bhagaura massacre, but according to author Shashi Bhushan Singh, Yadav wanted a political alliance with the Rajputs and he directed the MCC members, specially his castemen to stop targeting the Rajputs. The Rajputs also accepted the dominance of Naxalite groups over the time in some regions of south Bihar and the Bhumihars remained the major challenger to both the Naxalites as well as the rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

After perpetrating a number of massacre of Dalits, Ranvir Sena, the caste based militia of Bhumihar caste perpetrated Miyanpur massacre in 2000, in Aurangabad, Bihar. In this massacre, the Yadav caste was victim; over 30 people were killed by Sena in this incident. However, it is reported that this incident set tone for decline of Sena. As the party of Lalu Prasad Yadav, which was in government took stringent administrative policies on one hand to counter Sena, on the other hand various naxalite group also resolved their internal differences and started an extermination campaign of the men of Sena in small operations.

Combination of political and non-political conflicts
The society of Bihar was divided into OBCs, SCs and Forward Castes (upper caste); the forward castes had dominated the democratic institutions of the state in the rule of Congress and only a section of OBCs were politically conscious to think of replacing them from political power, this section, which included only three caste (Koeri, Kurmi and Yadav) also owned land in other parts of Bihar, but was poor in the areas dominated of the forward castes. They took land on tenancy from the forward castes, as they were marginal farmers in these areas. A fair number of the OBCs were also employed in the state institutions and were among educated servicemen in the urban areas. They remained victims of the high handedness of the upper-caste colleagues and the rivalry between them was evolving over time.

In rural areas, the OBCs were also confronting the MBC or Extremely Backward Class (also called Most Backward Castes, the category which includes more than hundred Backward Castes, other than trio of Koeri, Kurmi and Yadav) and the Scheduled Castes, but the upper-castes treated all sections of Backward Castes in the same manner, causing much resentment among the elite section of the Backwards. In the rural areas, the upper-castes countered the Most Backward Classes and Schedule Castes, when they wanted to eschew the village based livelihood options. They [upper-castes] reacted violently, when the MBC or the SCs tried to detach from any social institutions, that were symbol of low caste status. Since for different reasons, the OBCs, MBCs and the SCs were all pitted against the common rivals, the upper-castes, and the bitterness between the OBCs and the forward castes had strengthened after the anti-reservation protest launched by the upper-castes, unification of these social groups took place against the forward castes.

The rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav provided an opportunity to unite all these social groups and the Naxalite groups, which had many OBCs in the leadership positions, also supported the political party led by Yadav. Maoist Communist Centre of India, one of the most significant Naxalite group also sided with the interest of OBCs, and the MCC activists started providing armed backing to the Most Backward Classes and the Schedule Castes to exercise their franchise in order to led the candidates of Yadav's party towards victory. Hence, for a while, the boundary between political and Naxalite movement got blurred.

According to Professor Shashi Bhushan Singh, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, since the numerical strength of upper-caste (approximately 20% of state's population) was not enough to have large number of MLAs in the state legislature in order to control the Backward Castes, they resorted to undemocratic practices in order to retain the power in their hand, leading to rise of militancy among a section of Backwards. "The forward castes were required to send large numbers of MLAs into the state legislature, but devoid of numerical strength and encountering aggressive backward classes, the forward castes started looting polling booths with the help of the state officials and police who were mainly from among the forward castes. Subsequently the state became a biased entity. Thus, while most of the backward classes still reposed their faith in democratic struggle, a section of OBCs were attracted towards non-democratic ideas and organisations to confront the forward castes."

According to Singh, when Lalu Prasad Yadav asked for support from the members of Backward Castes, he was actually asking it in order to change the entire social order, in which upper caste were at advantage. The reservation policy introduced by the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations though didn't benefitted the Scheduled Castes, yet they supported Yadav against the forward castes.

According to a Social Scientist, who witnessed the encounter of Yadav with a person from the Musahar caste in North India, during his election campaign for 2000 Bihar Assembly elections, Yadav allegedly argued with latter, when he asked him to provide road infrastructure in the region. As per narrative, Yadav believed that the investment by state in physical infrastructure were somehow meant for benefitting the upper castes, who were having significant presence at the higher level of bureaucracy and in professional services. Hence, he blatantly created disruption in the general process of development, until the Upper Backward Castes take over the Forward Castes in these services. A majority of the District Magistrates during his tenure were from the Upper Backward Castes, and he also tried to ensure that the administrative posts at the middle level, for the rank of Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDM) and Block Development Officer (BDO) were also filled by these caste group only. For the professional services like Doctors and Engineers too, same formula was implemented.

According to author Arun Sinha, though Yadav and his colleague and successor Nitish Kumar belonged to same political roots, in the matter of quota politics and the politics of social justice for the deprived section of society, Kumar was accepted to upper castes. One reason behind this was step taken by Kumar for exclusion of well off section of the Backward Castes from the benefits of reservation in government jobs and other state sponsored program for social upliftment. In contrast to Kumar, Yadav has been described by Sinha, and was perceived as a staunch anti-upper caste leader.

The tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabari Devi coincided with Maoist Communist Centre becoming more violent than earlier. It was during Rabari Devi's tenure that Senari carnage against the Bhumihars took place. In this incident, over hundred armed activists of MCC slaughtered 34 Bhumihars in the village called senari by brutally slitting their throats. As per reports, Rabari Devi refused to visit Senari, probably because the village inhabitants and victims, being member of Bhumihar caste had always opposed her government. It was reported that after being implicated in corruption scandal, Yadav raised his wife to the post of Chief Minister; latter was reportedly illiterate, but this was not offensive to the poor of Bihar. It is observed that for their plight, in the struggle against Dalit dominated naxal groups like MCC, Bhumihars prefer to blame Yadav, who is described as a champion of lower castes.

Political symbolism
Yadav's politics is described as being against the radical Hindu Nationalism promoted by political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party. He employed political symbolism to a large extent in order to confront the politics based on militant religious ideology. In April 2003, he is reported to have organised a great rally at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, which was aimed at radicalising his lower caste supporters and mobilising them against the politics of Bhartiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). In its rally, VHP was distributing Trishuls to the participants, which was a symbol of militant Hindu identity. Yadav asked his rural supporters to join him in Gandhi Maidan with a Lathi (a robust stick) against the Trishuls of VHP. He said that, this implement (Lathi) of the rural poor, which was considered as the weapon of weak, will destroy the Trishul of hatred (an implicit attack on BJP's and VHP's politics of religion).

As per an eyewitness report, on the day of rally, the rural lower caste supporters of Yadav rushed towards Patna; many of them were brought in hurry by the local leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal to showcase their support to Yadav. The theme of the rally was, Bhajpa Bhagao Desh Bachao (get rid of Bhartiya Janata Party and save the country). The rallygoers flooded the city armed with Lathis, and in their way to Patna, many of them occupied the trains rushing towards city forcefully. Many windows of the trains were thrashed and the hostels located in Patna were occupied for the rallygoers. The crowd was so massive that the traffic in the city was destabilized for two days. The supporters were told to apply oil to their Lathis and recite the slogan: Lathi pilavan, Patna laavan, Bhajpa bhagavan, Desh bachavan (we will apply oil to our Lathis, bring it to Patna, remove the Bhartiya Janata Party and save the country). The large gathering of followers of Yadav in capital city of state of Bihar sybmolised the capture of the real centre of power by latter, as the city was reported to have flooded with Lathi welding supporters of Rashtriya Janata Dal, who were mostly the lower caste people coming from rural background.

1996 Gareeb Rally
Yadav's rally were contact point between him and his rural supporters. In 1996, a massive "rally of the poor" (Gareeb Rally) was organised by Janata Dal. Author Bela Bhatia, who was an eyewitness of this rally organised at Patna has mentioned that the poor people who assembled at Patna, were provided free commutation facility to become a part of this rally. There were numerous programmes organised by the office bearers of the Janata Dal for the rallyites. Bhatia has mentioned about the Trains, that were running on Arrah-Patna route, and carrying the rallyites to Patna. As per her description the Trains and Buses were carrying more pessengers than their capacity. Many of the people congregated at Patna either to lodge their grievances to the Chief Minister or in the hope of getting some monetary help. Bhatia describes an event being sponsored by Janata Dal legislator Shyam Rajak for the entertainment of rallyites, symbolising the acquaintance of the Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav with the taste of his rural supporters. "Later at around 10 that night as I made my way from one part of the city to another, I was witness near the station to an incongruous sight, 'a randi ka nach' (dance by a prostitute), one of the many similar programmes organised in the city ostensibly for the 'manoranjan' (recreation) of the rallyites. The shamiana was packed with villagers from far and near, the stage was set with green banners and under fluorescent lamps danced a young woman. A modern dancer with step-cut hair, a pink flare skirt swirling around her, as she danced with a mixture of western and traditional dance steps, to the tune of an alluring Magahi love song."

Elevation of grassroot workers to important position
In contrast to elections being based on money power, and the phenomenon of most of the candidates getting elected to houses of legislature in Bihar belonging to high income groups, RJD under Lalu Prasad Yadav has raised grassroot political workers from poor background to important positions in the politics of state. This is done occasionally to showcase the pro-poor stand of Yadav. In 2022, Yadav led election of a Dalit woman, Munni Rajak from Dhobi caste (washerman) to the seventy-five membered Bihar Legislative Council. Another example is of Ramvrikish Sada, the Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA from Alauli Assembly constituency, Khagaria district. Sada has even claimed that, he and his family worship Lalu Prasad Yadav besides Sabari, the deity of Musahars. Sada, who was associated with RJD for thirty years was reported to be the poorest MLA of Bihar in 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. He claimed that even money for running in election was provided to him by family of Lalu Prasad Yadav and he has just ₹ 70,000 in his bank account.

Corruption cases
Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted and jailed in two scams. As of January 2018, he, his wife Rabri Devi, his sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, and his eldest daughter Misa Bharti were all facing charges in several other corruption cases.

1996 Fodder Scam – 1st case
Yadav was an accused party and later convicted in the first Fodder Scam case of 1996. The case involved the siphoning off of about ₹4.50 billion ($111.85 million) from the animal husbandry department.

Several allegations of embezzlement from the animal husbandry department were tabled between 1990 and 1995. In January 1996, a raid conducted on Chaibasa treasury indicated the siphoning off of funds by non-existent companies. Yadav ordered an inquiry to probe the irregularities. However, after a public interest litigation, the Bihar High Court in March 1996 ordered the case to be handed over to the CBI. In June 1997, the CBI filed the charge sheet in the case and made Yadav an accused. The charge forced Yadav to resign from the office of Chief Minister, at which time he appointed his wife, Rabri Devi, to the office.

In 2001, the Supreme Court of India transferred the scam cases to newly formed court in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The trial began in 2002. In August 2013, Yadav tried to get the trial court judge transferred, but his plea was rejected by Supreme Court of India. Yadav has been an accused in many of the 53-odd cases filed. He has been remanded to custody on multiple occasions because of the number of cases. Over 64 people were convicted in the case. Yadav was first sent to "Judicial remand" (Bihar Military Police guest house, Patna) on 30 July 1997, for 134 days. On 28 October 1998, he was again sent to the same guest house for 73 days. When the Supreme Court took exception to his guest house stay, he had also moved to the Beur jail in Patna. On 26 November 2001, Yadav was again remanded, in a case related to the fodder scam. Yadav accused the NDA of creating a conspiracy against him. On 1 October 2004, the Supreme Court served a notice to Yadav and his wife in response to a petition which alleged that they have been interfering with the investigation.

Yadav, along with 44 other accused, was convicted on 30 September 2013 after being found guilty in fraudulent withdrawal of ₹37 crores (₹370 million) from Chaibasa treasury. Several other politicians, IAS officers were also convicted in the case. Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, Yadav was arrested and taken to Birsa Munda Central Jail, located at Ranchi. Yadav was disqualified as MP for six years. He was given a jail sentence of five years and a fine of ₹25 lakh (₹2.5 million).

He was released on bail from Birsa Munda Central Jail, after he completed the bail formalities in a Special CBI court, $2 1/2$ months after his conviction.

1998 disproportionate assets case
In 1998, a disproportionate assets (DA) case arising out of the fodder scam was registered against Yadav and Rabri Devi. In April 2000, both were made co-accused in the charge-sheet and surrendered. While Rabri Devi got bail due to being Chief Minister of Bihar, Yadav was remanded in Beur jail for 11 days. They were acquitted in 2006. The Bihar government wanted to appeal against the acquittal but the Supreme Court in 2010 ruled that the state government can not challenge such rulings.

1996 Fodder Scam – 2nd case
Yadav was convicted and jailed in the second Fodder Scam case of ₹8.927 million on the same day 23 December 2017 when his daughter Misa Bharti was also charged by the Enforcement Directorate of having disproportionate assets. Yadav was convicted 23 December 2017 and sentenced on 6 January 2018 to 3$1/2$ years' imprisonment and ₹1,000,000 fine for the fraudulent withdrawal of ₹8,900,000 from the Deoghar district treasury between 1990 and 1994.

1996 Fodder Scam – 3rd case
This case, pertaining to scamming ₹356.2 million scammed from the Chaibasa treasury of West Singhbhum district,

1996 Fodder Scam – 4th case
Yadav was convicted by the special CBI court in the fourth fodder scam case relating to alleged withdrawal of ₹3.13 crore from the Dumka district treasury over two decades ago. CBI Judge awarded him two separate sentences of seven years each under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Acts.

1996 Fodder Scam – 5th case
This case, pertaining to the scamming Yadav has been found guilty of illegal withdrawals of ₹139.35 crore from the Doranda treasury by a special CBI court in Jharkhand's Ranchi on 15 February 2022. In February 2022 A CBI court sentenced to five years jail term in fifth case and imposed a fine of ₹60 lakh.

2005 Indian Railway tender scam
2005 Indian Railway tender scam, investigated by the CBI, is the bribery and corruption case where Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family are charged for illegally receiving prime property from the bidder as a bribe for corruptly awarding the Railway tender during Yadav's tenure as Railway Minister. Transfer of these properties as bribe to Yadav and his children were disguised using the shell companies; for example, wife Rabri Devi and three children, Misa Bharti, Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, received Saguna Mor Mall property worth ₹45 crore through a shell company named Delight Marketing (renamed as Lara properties), and another shell company AB Exports was used to transfer properties worth ₹40 crore for a price of ₹4 lakh to Lalu's other three children Tejashwi Yadav, Ragini and Chanda. This case spawned several other related but independent cases, such as disproportionate assets case as well as tax avoidance case by ED. Under the Benami Transactions Prohibition Act recipient of such benami properties can be imprisoned for up to 7 years and fined up to 25% fair market value, and convicted politicians are barred from contesting elections or holding elected position for six years.

2017 Delight Properties case
Investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), against Yadav, his wife, son Tejashwi, daughter Misa and others, arose from the alleged illegal proceeds of the 2005 Indian Railway tender scam. The I-T department issued summons for 12 June 2017 to Misa Bharti, over Benami land deals worth ₹10 billion (₹1,000 crores). Misa was officially charged by ED in disproportionate assets case on the same day her father was convicted again in the second fodder scam. After the CBI lodged an FIR on 5 July 2017, ED filed the Case Information Report (ECIR) on 27 July 2017 against Lalu, his wife Rabri, their younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and others in the railways tender corruption and ill-gotten property scam that happened during Lalu's tenure as the Railway Minister. Taking action against this scam, ED of Income Tax Department on 12 September 2017 attached more than 12 properties in Patna and Delhi including the plot for the mall in Patna, a farm house in Delhi and up-market land in Palam Vihar in Delhi. This includes the transfer of ₹450 million (₹45 crore) Seguna mor benami property transferred to Lalu's wife Rabri Devi and children Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav by using a shell company named Delight Properties, which was later renamed as Lara Properties. (Updated: 7 Jan 2018)

2017 AB Exports cases
AB Exports was a shell company used to transfer, as a bribe for the railway tender scam, ₹400 million (₹40 crore) benami property for a mere price of ₹400,000 to Lalu's 3 children Tejashwi Yadav, Ragini Yadav and Chanda Singh. ED has attached this property and booked the 3 accused children of Lalu. (Updated: 7 Jan 2018)

2017 Patna zoo soil scam
2017 Patna zoo soil scam is an allegation/case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav for the "gross irregularities" of selling soil from the construction of Tej Pratap's Saguna Mor mall basement. The bogus beautification scheme was for ₹90 lakh to Patna zoo without inviting any tenders when Tej Pratap was the minister of environment and forest in Bihar, a department that controls the zoo. The scam came to the light in April 2017, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in Patna High Court in October 2017, court ordered the Bihar government to furnish the details of investigation, following which the case was handed over to Bihar Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) department for the investigation under the Pollution Control Board Act, the Environment Protection Act and Wildlife Protection Act (1972) (update: 6 Jan 2018).

The Bihar government said that official procedure was duly followed in the case and prima facie no evidence of irregularity has come into light in zoo soil deal. (Updated: 31 May 2020)

Bail
Yadav was convicted in the controversial Fodder Scam, and was serving a term until 17 April 2021, when he was granted bail from the Jharkhand High Court in the corruption scandal.

Corruption, nepotism and dynasticism
Yadav is one of the first noted politicians to lose parliamentary seat on being arrested in fodder scam as per Supreme Court decision banning convicted legislators to hold their posts. During his tenure as Chief Minister, Bihar's law and order was at lowest, kidnapping was on rise and private armies mushroomed. He was also criticized by opposition in the Shilpi-Gautam Murder case and the death of his daughter Ragini Yadav's friend, Abhishek Mishra, in mysterious circumstances.

Criticism on Yadavisation
Lalu Yadav's rule witnessed Yadav caste becoming assertive in the rural and urban landscape of Bihar, leading his opponents to coin the slogan of "Yadavisation" of Bihar's polity and administration. This fact was used by other political parties to dislodge his government on the charges of working for the benefit of a single caste group at the cost of various other backward communities. According to a report of Indian Human Development Survey (2011–12), Brahmins topped in average per capita income with ₹28,093, the other upper castes of Bihar which comprises Rajputs have an average per capita income of ₹20,655, closely followed by middle agrarian castes like Kushwahas and Kurmis earning ₹18,811 and ₹17,835 respectively as their average per capita income. In contrast, Yadavs' income is one of the lowest among OBCs at ₹12,314, which is slightly less than the rest of OBCs (₹12,617). Hence, despite the political mobilisation of backward castes in post mandal period, the upper-caste are still the highest income groups in Bihar. According to this report, the economic benefits of the Mandal politics could be seen as affecting only few backward castes of agrarian background leading to their upward mobilisation. The Yadavs hence transformed their assertiveness to the upward mobility in the politics only while the other "Backward Castes" gained momentum in the other fields, though still the upper-caste dominance was retained in upper echelon of bureaucracy.

Writings
Lalu Prasad has written his autobiography named Gopalganj to Raisina Road.

Filmography

 * Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav (Bollywood), as himself (special appearance)
 * Mahua (Bhojiwood)
 * Gudri Ke Lal (Bhojiwood)

Books

 * A writer named Neena Jha has written a book on Lalu Prasad named Lalu Prasad, India's miracle.
 * Book named Laloo Prasad Yadav: A Charismatic Leader was published in 1996.
 * "The Making of Laloo Yadav, The Unmaking of Bihar", updated and reprinted under the title "Subaltern Sahib: Bihar and the Making of Laloo Yadav", is a book based on Lalu's life by Sankarshan Thakur.

Movies

 * Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Bollywood movie was released in 2005. It was based on a girl named Padmshree, her boyfriend Laloo, her lawyer Prasad and Yadav was Lalu Prasad himself as a special appearance.
 * Upcoming Bhojpuri film Lalten is a biopic based on the life of Lalu Prasad.

title: Lalu Prasad Yadav


text:
Victoria Park (Hong Kong)

Victoria Park (usually shortened as 維園) is a public park in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai District, Hong Kong. The park is named after Queen Victoria, who has a statue in the park. It is around 190000 m2 in size and contains sporting facilities for tennis, association football, basketball, handball, volleyball, swimming, jogging, fitness, roller skating, and bowling.

The park first opened to the public in October 1957 and was revamped in the early 2000s. Owned and operated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong, the park is open all year, free of admission charge. It is Hong Kong's most popular public park, with more visitors than Hong Kong and Kowloon parks combined.

Site
Victoria Park is located on Hong Kong Island, in the Causeway Bay area of Wan Chai District. It is situated on the shore of Causeway Bay typhoon shelter and separated by a breakwater from Victoria Harbour. The park is bounded by Causeway Road to the southeast, Gloucester Road to the west, Victoria Park Road and Island Eastern Corridor to the north, and Hing Fat Street to the east.

The park is bordered on the south by the Hong Kong Central Library and the Regal Hongkong Hotel, on the east by the Park Towers residential complex, on the north by a fire station and Citicorp Centre office tower, and on the west by Windsor House retail mall and The Park Lane Hong Kong hotel. A small square, Tung Lo Wan Garden, is located in the north-western portion of Victoria Park. Two stations, Causeway Bay and Tin Hau, are located near the park. There are bus lines and a tramline along Causeway Road, which run beside the park. Several pedestrian bridges with escalators and elevators have been built to connect the park to the Causeway Road.

History
Previously, the park's location served as a typhoon shelter, known as Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, used by small fishing boats and yachts during typhoon seasons. In the 1950s, the former bay was filled in, the shoreline was pushed north, and the government decided to create a public park on the newly reclaimed land. A new typhoon shelter was built north of the park.

In 1955, a statue of Queen Victoria was moved to the park. The statue was cast in Pimlico, London towards the end of the nineteenth century and subsequently erected in Hong Kong's Central District. It was transferred to Japan to be melted down during the Japanese occupation, but was retrieved in the aftermath of World War II, and was restored before being placed in the park. The park officially opened in October 1957. In 1972, embankments in the park's northern half were completed in conjunction with the construction of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and the Victoria Park Road was paved.

A central lawn was laid in the park in 1974 and a tennis court was built in 1981. In 1984, an overpass of the Island Eastern Corridor was built along Victoria Park Road, connecting Causeway Bay with the Tai Koo Shing estate. In September 1996, a mainland Chinese artist, Pun Sing-lui, in protest over Hong Kong's "dull, colonial culture", painted the statue of Queen Victoria crimson and bent its nose with a hammer. The nose of the statue was rebuilt costing $150,000, and Sing-lui was sentenced to 28 days in prison.

From 2000 to 2002, the park received a major renovation, which saw many sporting facilities built on the site. The park's popularity increased after the revamp, especially among Indonesian domestic workers, as Sugar Street, adjacent to the park, is home to numerous Indonesian food, spice, book, magazine and music shops.

In 2013, a modern indoor swimming complex was built on the site of the old outdoor pools. In the following year, construction work for the project began at the northern end of Victoria Park, sparking public outcry. A portion of the park was occupied by construction of a slip road for the Central–Wan Chai Bypass project. This was highly controversial, as local councillors and residents alleged they were not informed that the road would cut through the park. In March 2015, construction unearthed unexploded ordnance dating from World War II, and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force was called in to dispose of it.

Facilities
In the central section of Victoria Park, there is a complex of fourteen tennis courts, with the main court, which opened in 1981, seating approximately 3,600 spectators, with two fields with artificial turf for playing bowls are nearby. A two-hectare central lawn is surrounded by pathways with trees to the west of the tennis courts. A 625-meter jogging path around the lawn features six stops for diverse fitness training. Six public football pitches are located south of the courts and central lawn, and a sitting statue of Queen Victoria stands next to them. Four basketball courts are located in the southeast section of the park, between the football pitches and the swimming pool.

There are public roller rinks, a handball and volleyball court and table tennis courts. There are four playgrounds to the north of the tennis courts, each with its own set of slides, swings, and exercise equipment, as well as a pebble walking trail. A 954 square meter in size and a half-meter deep pond where model yachting takes place and an open stage with a bandstand suitable for a hundred spectators are both located to the north of the central lawn. Most sports fields in the park have restrooms, changing rooms, and drinking fountains. Open portions of the park are patrolled 24/7 by both local policemen and police teams.

The indoor swimming complex, which opened in September 2013 at a cost of nearly HK$800 million is located in the park's eastern section, on the location of the Old Victoria Park Swimming Pool. It includes two pools with 2,500-seat spectator stands and an electronic scoreboard, as well as changing rooms, showers, restrooms, and wheelchair lifts. The Old Victoria Park Swimming Pool was opened with the park itself in 1957 and was the first public swimming pool in Hong Kong.

Vegetation
Trees such as Jacaranda mimosifolia, Melia azedarach, Spathodea, Delonix regia and Casuarina equisetifolia are found in the park. The park also houses many trees that are registered as "old and valuable", including Ceiba pentandra, Erythrina variegata, Mimusops elengi, Ficus virens and Ficus altissima.

Events
In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, the park hosts the annual Lunar New Year Fair, which also includes a plant market, however both of these events were not held in 2022 due to COVID-19. Other annual events such as the Hong Kong Flower Show, Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo, Mid-Autumn Festival, Hong Kong Marathon and Hong Kong Pride Parade are also held in the park.

Apart from annual events, employees of the Consulate General of Indonesia frequently arrange meetings and open-air training courses in the park as well. The United Buddy Bears exhibition, which was held on the central lawn of Victoria Park in 2004, drew over 2 million visitors, making it Hong Kong's largest open-air art exposition. The "Arts Corner" is hosted in the South Pavilion Square every Sunday, except when there are citywide events. Here, artists sell their works, souvenirs, handicrafts, paintings, drawings, cartoons, and photographs in kiosks and small booths.

Victoria Park serves as a gathering point for the annual 1 July marches. The park has become a staging ground for protests many times, including for Pro-democracy protests in December 2005, the 2014 Occupy Movement, and anti-government demonstrations in the summer of 2019.

City Forum, attended by government officials, politicians, business figurers and pundits, would debate on new government policies was formerly held at the park weekly on Sunday. The forum was inspired by Speakers' Corner in London, and was aired by Hong Kong government's broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong. It was discontinued in September 2021.

Tiananmen Square commemoration
The park serves as a place of commemoration for the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989, with huge crowds gathering each year to mark the anniversary of the massacre, although the park was closed in June 2021 due to law enforcement restrictions imposed, following the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. It was also closed off to the commemoration in June 2020, and was closed in 2022 and 2023 for "maintenance."

title: Victoria Park (Hong Kong)