Jharkhand statehood hero now a vegetable seller

RANCHI: He was the frontrunner of the statehood movement, in and out of jails during bandhs and demonstrations in the late 1980s and through the 1990s.
Seventeen years after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar, Binod Bhagat, founder member of the All Jharkhand Students Union, is out on the streets, selling vegetables at a local market in Morhabadi. “Just like PM Narendra Modi had to sell tea due to adverse financial conditions, I am selling vegetables due to my penury,“ said Bhagat.Bhagat's juniors, who he had hand-picked for the statehood cause and nurtured to be future leaders, have made a meteoric rise and enjoyed ministerial status in the various governments since November 2000. Bhagat was also a councillor of the Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council formed in 1995.
A dual post-graduate in economics and journalism from Ranchi University, and later an assistant station manager at Dhanbad with South Eastern Railways, Bhagat vanished into oblivion after failing to adjust with political parties (JMM and BJP).
“I left my job way back in 1986 and jumped into the movement to get a separate state, little knowing then that the state would go into hands of crooks,“ Bhagat said.
He is hardly the same firebrand leader that he was years ago. Bhagat said he felt no shame in selling vegetables, “This is still better than earning money through corrupt means,“ he said.
The spirits of this 55-year old, however, are still high. Even after a hard day's work at the market, pocketing a profit of about Rs 100 a day, Binod finds time to pursue research work on mining in Jharkhand. “This is a bad phase of my life and will pass soon,“ he optimistically said.