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Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
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Spirited exchange

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

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

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

When it was pointed out that Mr. Kumar claimed not to believe in superstition, Mr. Prasad said, "Sab bekaar baat hai (it is all nonsense). Why else has the administrator of the State Religious Trust Board appointed by the Chief Minister organised so many recitals of Hanuman Chalisa at the Mahavir temple at the behest of Mr. Kumar every day?" — PTI

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