Academic qualifications of Jharkhand ministers is bound to become a hot-button topic of gossip again after state education minister Jagarnath Mahto, a matriculate, got himself enrolled in a Plus-Two school that he had founded a decade back to pursue further studies.
On Monday, after enrolling himself at Devi Mahto Inter College in Bokaro district, Mahto said the reason behind going back to class was to silence his detractors, many of whom had taunted about him about being a “mere matriculate” when he took oath as the education minister in the Hemant Soren-led coalition government comprising the JMM, Congress and RJD.
But Mahto isn’t the only one in the ministry who is a matriculate. In the 11-member Hemant Soren cabinet, there are four others who have studied up to class 10. And all are in-charge of key portfolios.
They are Congress’s Banna Gupta (47), who as the state’s health minister is at the forefront of the Covid crisis; RJD’s Satyanand Bhokta, who holds the labour and employment department at a time when jobs is what the state’s youth are talking about; JMM’s Joba Majhi (55), who is currently state social welfare and women’s development minister; and JMM’s Champai Soren (63), who now heads the state transport ministry.
Transport minister Champai Soren. Manob Chowdhary
Champai, who has won Assembly elections several times from Seraikela, put his “education” in perspective when he recalled his long association with the Jharkhand andolan alongside the likes of party patriarch Shibu Soren.
“Many of us like Jagarnnath, Joba and others, were part of the tribal movement for a separate Jharkhand. Although there is no age limit for studies, when I look back now, I realise I have learnt more from what life has taught me and not books. Despite being a matriculate, I am proud to have come this far, fighting for the cause of the landless and adivasis all my life,” said Champai who cleared his class 10 from RKM High School in Jamshedpur in 1974.
Health minister Banna Gupta, who is an MLA from Jamshedpur West, moved to politics after completing his matric from Tata Worker’s Union High School (Bihar secondary education board, Patna) in the steel city in 1989.
Gupta was a union leader of auto drivers and owners in Jamshedpur. This is his second stint in government. While he was with Hemant Soren in 2013, he had served as agriculture minister.
Over seven lakh migrants who returned to Jharkhand in the wake of the Covid pandemic are looking at labour minister Bhokta with hope. He cleared his matric from Hindi Vidyapeth, Deoghar, in 1994, but discontinued studies thereafter.
Labour and employment minister Satyanand Bhokta. Manob Chaowdhary
Bhokta was elected to the state Assembly from Chatra twice, in 2000 to 2009, as a BJP member and also served as state drinking water and agriculture minister in the former Arjun Munda government.
Social welfare minister Joba Majhi. Manob Chowdhary
Joba Majhi cleared her matriculation from Ram Janaki Kanya High School, Jugsalai, in 1982. She became an MLA for the first time in 1995 when she won from Manoharpur in a byelection held after the murder of her husband, Devendra Majhi.
After the formation of Jharkhand, she went on to win from the seat in 2000, 2005, 2014 and 2019. After serving as a Union minister of state for housing in 1998, she was minister in the state in 2005 and 2009.
Majhi could not be contacted, but an aide said, “Joba Majhi tried pursuing further studies but never got time, being an active politician who had run a home, too.”
