Three musketeers

Ranchi, May 10: Former chief minister Arjun Munda is virtually playing a whistleblower for the Independent ministers who pulled down his government.

He is writing a book “to bring out the truth” about the “misdeeds” of his ministers and party members.

Close on the heels of questioning the legal propriety of Madhu Koda’s “secret visit” to Thailand, Munda today declared he was in possession of a compact disc (CD) depicting “sordid deeds” of rural development minister Anosh Ekka. “I will release it at appropriate time,” he said.

Munda has already thrown a riddle in the murky political firmament in Jharkhand by saying a convict had travelled along with Koda — then a minister in his cabinet — to Bangkok.

Munda, who would obviously like to gain political mileage from the secrets of clandestine foreign jaunts, did not want to reveal the convict’s name now. “I will hold a press conference to announce it,” he said.

When asked how he being the chief minister had remained clueless about his ministers’ whereabouts, Munda went on the defensive. “They made unnecessary hue and cry when I raised a question.”

Munda’s denial apart, his close associates named a Jamshedpur businessman, who had a running feud with one Rajkumar Singh. He had been convicted in a case and was currently out on bail. His family has some business in Bangkok. Even his wife is from Thailand, they added.

According to sources, Koda’s close associates, too, had made efforts to set up a business in Thailand some time back. And the “private” visit might be the part of the business agenda.

But the question remained as to how it could be proved that the person visited along with Koda and not on his own.

Moreover, if the high court, while granting bail, had banned his visits to foreign countries, why didn’t the police seize his passport. The timing of the revelation also casts aspersions on Munda for keeping the “protocol violation” by his ministers a closely-guarded secret so far. So, concluded his detractors, it might be pressure tactics.

Some politicians feel the BJP had the inkling the Congress was not going to allow the Koda government to run any further.

Said one of them: “Munda, who was hesitant to pull down the government, would want to take the credit for toppling it on this issue or force the Congress to withdraw support and take a moral high ground.”

It might also be a ploy to counter Koda’s move to order any probe in any of the acts of omission and commission by Munda during his regime.