Protesting teachers whom Mamata Banerjee told not to block roads or confine others in the name of protests said uncertainty over their future had forced them to stage an indefinite sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan, the education secretariat.
They also reminded the chief minister, who is objecting to roads being occupied, that she frequently resorted to similar tactics as a mark of protest when she was the leader of the Opposition.
“If what she did was justified, how can our blockade of roads be unjustified?” a protesting teacher wondered.
Teachers “not specifically found tainted” and allowed to work with pay till December 31 have been staging a sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan since May 7.
They are protesting the state government’s intent to issue a fresh recruitment notification by May 29 in compliance with a Supreme Court order.
The court has said the teachers have to clear a fresh recruitment test and qualify again to retain their jobs beyond December 31.
On May 15, the teachers attempted to storm Bikash Bhavan. They confined over 3,000 government employees and visitors for hours.
“We have been forced to start the protest because of the uncertainty over our future. Being allowed to go to school till December 31 does not give us any relief. Why do we have to write the tests again, considering that we have been fairly recruited?” asked Sangita Saha, a protesting teacher.
Saha was on the dais with the chief minister when Mamata addressed the teachers on April 7, four days after the Supreme Court terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff.
Saha, who teaches at a school in Durgapur, said during the Singur movement, Mamata, then an Opposition leader, had blocked a national highway in protest.
“If her blockade then was justified, how come ours is being viewed as unjustified now?” said Saha.
In August 2008, Mamata spearheaded a 16-day siege of the Durgapur Expressway to protest the then Left government’s acquisition of fertile farmland for a Tata Motors factory.
The Tatas scrapped the project, which was expected to generate job opportunities for thousands of youths, in October 2008, in the face of sustained protests.
Mehboob Mandal, one of the faces of the teachers’
protest, said one reason for their agitation was that the state government did not honour its commitment to the teachers.
“On April 7, the chief minister told us that the state government would consult us before filing a petition, seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s April 3 order. But the state filed a review petition without consulting us. The school
service commission also filed its review petition without consulting us. Is this not a breach of trust? Blocking a road for a protest is nothing new in Bengal. We are protesting because we have no other choice,” he said.
The Bengal government’s petition for a review of the Supreme Court order that terminated the school staff says the court failed to appreciate that over 18,000 candidates “not specifically found tainted” had also been made to suffer “for the alleged illegality committed by the SSC in the selection process in respect of certain other tainted candidates”.
The SSC has contended in its review petition before the Supreme Court that when it was possible to segregate tainted candidates, it was not clear why the court ordered the cancellation of the entire selection process.
A school education department official said it was not possible to consult with the teachers because they had too many factions, and consulting them would have come in the way of filing the review petitions.
Education minister Bratya Basu told a news conference on Monday that the contents of the review petition suggested that the state government was keen to reinstate the terminated teachers with full honours.
“The protesting teachers don’t want us to hold the fresh recruitment process in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s April 17 order. How is that possible? If we don’t do that, it would mean contempt of court. Let me also tell you that I have received a communication from 2,500 teachers who have told me that they don’t want to take part in the sit-in and they are reposing faith in the steps that the state government is taking for their rehabilitation,” Basu said.