Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Justice upheld” (December 25). The second conviction of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in the Deoghar treasury case might carries immense weight and is likely to influence how the RJD positions itself in the alliance arithmetic in 2018 and 2019 elections.
Now, with Lalu Yadav’s conviction, the taint of corruption might upset the game for Congress. The grand old party has freshly emerged ‘clean’ in the wake of the shocking 2G verdict, which held no one guilty, and particularly gave a clean chit to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, the guilty verdict for Lalu Yadav restores faith in the Indian institution as the series of acquittals in landmark cases that had shaped the corruption narrative in the past few years had challenged the very idea of institutional accountability.