Laloo Prasad Yadav, India's most notorious politician, is undergoing an unexpected transformation. A man blamed for bringing "jungle raj" to the impoverished and lawless north Indian state of Bihar (Pakistan can have Kashmir so long as it takes Bihar too, one joke goes), has suddenly become the toast of reformers for his surprising success in overhauling the Indian railway system.

"The same network that an expert group declared in July 2001 to be on the edge of 'fatal bankruptcy' and stuck in a 'terminal debt trap' is now the second largest cash generator in the public sector," Mr Yadav says in an interview.