Students of South Suburban School, Bhowanipore, on their way to join the Left Front rally on Monday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha The letter from minister Subhas Chakraborty

Fifteen-year-old Sougata Banerjee was taken for a ride on Monday — by the insidious nexus between politics and the classroom.

The student of South Suburban School in Bhowanipore had been asked by the authorities to assemble — along with all students of Class IX and Class X — at 9am on the school premises.

Then, without any explanation, 80 boys were herded into a CSTC bus (WB04 C-4891) and driven off to Park Circus Maidan.

“We were never told that we would have to participate in the mahamichhil. Had I known we were to walk from Park Circus to Deshbandhu Park in this heat I would never have come. And my parents would have never allowed me to come to school in the first place,” said Sougato.

Dehydrated and disgruntled, Sougato and his friends put up a brave face when Metro boarded the bus on CIT Road, around 1.30pm, but soon complaints of “no food, no water, suffocating crowds...” started pouring in from all sides.

Why were the students forced to participate in a political rally without even being given a choice to opt out?

“If the students do not participate in these rallies how will their political awakening happen? How will they know that the state government is fighting for the cause of the poor?” shot back Debashish Bhattacharya, the teacher-in-charge on the bus.

And then, he flashed a letter bomb — signed by transport minister Subhash Chakraborty, urging the school’s headmaster to send his students to the September 1 rally.

The letter from minister Subhas Chakraborty

The letter dated 25/08/08, on the letterhead of the transport minister, read: “The 1st day of September has traditionally been earmarked as the World Peace Day to raise our voice against war. In our state the day is observed by participating through an anti-war peace rally. This year the peace rally will be flagged off at 1pm on September 1 from Park Circus Maidan….

“I would be very glad if you kindly make necessary arrangements so that the students of your school participate actively in this year’s rally.”

But the students were in no mood for political rhetoric. All they wanted was the crowd to part and allow them to head back home.

With all roads leading to Park Circus clogged, the bus meandered for three hours through Bhowanipore, Esplanade, Moulali and CIT Road.

“We were given one cup-cake each at 9am when we were leaving school. We are hungry, thirsty and exhausted,” grumbled a student of Class IX, one of the 80 boys packed into a 40-seater bus.

Not one of the boys Metro met on the bus seemed a willing participant in the mahamichhil, a show of strength supposedly for the cause of world peace.

“Why should we participate in a michhil? We do not belong to any political party. We do not even know what this rally is about,” protested Class X student Krishna Ghosh, even as teacher-in-charge Bhattacharya instructed him to keep quiet.