His detractors may think of him as a spent force after his defeat in the Assembly poll in Bihar held last year. Some more hardcore detractors may call him a "joker" for his quotable quotes.
But senior officials of the Indian Railways are jubilant over the reported move by the prestigious Harvard Business School to include Mr Yadav's success story in which he has effected a turnaround in the biggest ever public sector unit of India in its curriculum.
The fate of Indian Railways was virtually written off by the Rakesh Mohan Committee by terming it as a white elephant.
Even before the Harvard move, few prestigious IIMs in the country have already decided to make Mr Yadav's success as Railways Minister a case study for posting a fund balance of Rs 11,280 crore in March 2006.
Against this backdrop, the move by the Harvard can just be considered as an addition of another feather to his cap.
Once Harvard finally decides to incorporate Indian Railways success story into its curriculum, the thrust would be on how a railway system under the jurisdiction of a coalition government could be put on the road to success.
Sources further disclosed that a former faculty member of Harvard was also scheduled to visit India later this year to study the Railways model.
A senior congress leader of Bihar, who refused to be identified, said with Mr Yadav succeeding in bringing back the Railways on track, it was likely to help the economist-turned-Prime Minister to tackle in a more balanced manner the pulls and pressures from his pro-active reformist Finance Minister and the Opposition.
