A day after the arrest of former Agriculture Minister and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Satyanand Bhokta, the party adopted a defensive posture and virtually exonerated the disgraced leader. Bhokta was arrested on October 14 by State Vigilance bureau in connection with seed scam of around Rs 46 crore which allegedly took place when he was Agriculture Minister in Madhu Koda’s government.
“He (Bhokta) was in-charge of the department so his arrest should be seen in this context,” said State BJP president Ravindra Rai.
He was speaking at a party function organized to induct members in the party.
Interestingly, the BJP chief dragged the entire Agriculture department besides demanding arrest of other officials of the department. “The entire department is under scanner so other officials should also be arrested,” maintained Rai.
While taking a moral high ground on the issue of corruption, the BJP treaded cautiously on issue of disciplinary, if any, action following Bhokta’s arrest. “There is a disciplinary committee which will decide what should be done in the situation,” conceded Rai.
Earlier, Rai chided State based parties for their narrow approach to national issues and putting a person ahead of national interest. He scoffed the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha for portraying their stature equivalent to that of a national party like BJP.
“These parties revolve around one person. If one has to achieve anything then he needs to sing paeans for the chief,” quipped Rai.
Notably, more than two dozen people from Koderma in the leadership of Ramesh Singh joined the BJP on Friday. This is Singh’s second entry in the party. He had left BJP and joined JVM in the past.