Jharkhand has broken the myth that children follow the path of their parents. It is believed that a doctor’s son becomes a doctor, an engineer’s son becomes an engineer and a politician’s son becomes a politician.
However, in an interesting development, Jharkhand Labour, Employment and Skill Development Minister Satyanand Bhogta’s son Mukesh Bhogta has been selected for the post of peon in Chatra Civil Court.
The Minister is the lone MLA from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and for the first time, the people of Jharkhand will see the son of a State Minister working as a peon. Even Ramdev Bhogta, the Minister’s nephew and son of the late Mahadev Ganjhu, is on the waiting list after going through the interview process for the post.
Advertisement number 1/2023 was issued by Sessions Judge of Chatra under order number 26/2023 for the posts of peon, treasury messenger, driver and night guard. The final list was released after the interview on Friday. Out of the 19 vacancies, 13 were the post of peon and Mr. Mukesh Bhogta was selected on Scheduled Tribe (ST) quota.
Commenting on the development, Jharkhand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Pratul Sahdev told The Hindu, “No work is small and we absolutely have no problem if a Minister’s son is getting selected for peon’s post. I have come to know from unconfirmed sources that he is probably a graduate or postgraduate. These are the cases in which people having graduate and postgraduate qualifications getting the fourth-grade job do not speak well about Jharkhand’s government employment policies.”
He further said, “As of today, there are more than seven lakh registered unemployed people in the government’s portal and more than three lakh vacancies exist in Jharkhand’s government of which 17,000 plus exist only in the Home Department. This government has totally failed in providing employment to the youths.”
Several attempts to contact the Minister and his son turned futile.
Bhogta in the limelight
Mr. Bhogta came into the limelight when he was accused in a seed scam while serving as the Agriculture Minister in the then Arjun Munda government.
His son’s wedding last December also became a source of great political attention.
In March last year, Rajya Sabha approved a Bill removing the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and included it on the ST list for Jharkhand. Minister Bhogta had expressed disappointment over the decision then. The three-time MLA had won from the seat reserved for SC — Chatra. He had contested on the BJP ticket twice and in 2019, as part of RJD. He was made Minister all three times. With the Bhogta caste falling under ST list, he would not be able to contest from the same seat from the next Assembly election.
It was because of this move that the Minister is said to have ensured the marriage of his third son, Mr. Mukesh Bhogta, to Rashmi Kumari, who belongs to the SC community. It is believed that he will field his daughter-in-law from the Chatra seat.
A caste organisation had boycotted Mr. Mukesh Bhogta’s wedding, where Chief Minister Hemant Soren had been a guest, for marrying outside his caste.
