Lalu Prasad enters fray by penning shlok on CBI's internal war; begins "A deer has fragrance within yet runs through forest searching for it...". Read here

Former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has weighed in on the ongoing internal war within the CBI, which has seen the top two officials in India's premier investigative agency making bribery charges against each other, with a case even being filed in one case.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was jailed following his conviction in multiple Fodder Scam cases, has issued a modified shlok regarding the issue:

कस्तूरी कुन्डल बसे, मृग ढूँढत बन माहि ।
भ्रष्टवा सीबीआई बसे, भ्रष्ट ढूँढत विपक्ष माहि।।
#CBIvCBI

This reads as:

Kasturi kundal base, mrag dhundhat ban mahi,
Brashthva CBI base, brasht dhundhat vipaksh mahi

This translates to:

A deer has the fragrance in itself and yet runs through the forest searching for it. Similarly, corruption is in the CBI, and yet it is searching for corruption in the opposition

The original shlok by Saint Kabir translates as:

कस्तूरी कुंडल बसे, मृग ढूँढत बन माहि |
ज्यो घट घट राम है, दुनिया देखे नाही |

It reads as:

Kasturi kundal base, mrag dhundhat ban mahi
Jyo ghat ghat ram hai, duniya dekhe nahi

And translates to:

A deer has the fragrance in itself and runs throughout the forest for finding it. Similarly Ram is everywhere but the world does not see.

It is unknown if the tweet has been physically posted by Lalu Prasad, as he is currently admitted in Ranchi hospital, and had earlier posted that his office will operate his Twitter handle from time to time in his absence in consultation with his family:

Lalu Prasad's entry into the ongoing controversy, while unexpected, isn't altogether surprising as he has had a number of run-ins with embattled CBI special director Rakesh Asthana in the past, namely being grilled about the Fodder Scam in the mid-90s while Lalu was in his heyday, and also, last year as Asthana led raids against the Lalu family in the IRCTC case.

The internal battle within the CBI has taken on a political nature on account of numerous politicians tweeting on the matter, including Rahul Gandhi, who has used it to target the Prime Minister:

"The PM’s blue-eyed boy, Gujarat cadre officer, of Godra SIT fame, infiltrated as No. 2 into the CBI, has now been caught taking bribes. Under this PM, the CBI is a weapon of political vendetta. An institution in terminal decline that’s at war with itself", the Congress president wrote about Asthana being booked by the CBI in a bribery case. Asthana is also leading investigations into the VVIP choppergate scam as well into Vijay Mallya.

Meanwhile, Rakesh Asthana has counter-alleged in a letter to the CVC that it is the CBI's director, Alok Verma, who received illegal gratification in the meat exporter Moin Qureshi's case.