Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
Amidst the tragedy that engulfed thousands of families in Bengal, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari were involved in a blame-game over the cancellation of appointments of 27, 753 teaching and non-teaching staff in the state-run schools.
The thousands of teachers who have been on the streets were distraught, angry, confused. Some had married in the nine years that they have been waiting for the dust on the recruitment process to settle. The dust did settle but left their lives unsettled.
“I am a first-class graduate. I got a first-class in MA and B.ED as well. I had studied hard, worked hard and qualified on my own merit, while others submitted blank OMR sheets. In one blow everything is lost,” said Sagar Mondal, one of the 25,000-plus who lost their jobs on Thursday to The Telegraph Online. “How will I face my children? How will I face my parents? How will I stand in front of my students at school? They have put the eligible and the ineligible in the same bracket.”
While Suvendu held Mamata responsible for the Supreme Court division bench rejecting the entire appointment process from the year 2016, Mamata accused two rival MPs. One, a lawyer and a Rajya Sabha MP from the CPM, and the other a former judge in the Calcutta high court who made it to the Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from Tamluk.
Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya had represented a section of the aggrieved candidates who were allegedly denied jobs despite clearing the qualifying exam and viva, while Abhijit Ganguly during his days as a Judge in the Calcutta high court was instrumental in pursuing the case.
“Who is Bikash Bhattacharya? He is a CPM MP. The other is a Ganguly or Danguly, I don’t know his full name. He is now a BJP MP. Don’t they have any accountability?” asked Mamata addressing a news conference at the state secretariat hours after the apex court’s division bench comprising the Chief Justice of India Sanjeej Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar gave its verdict in the SSC scam case.
“The BJP and CPM did this. This is a warning bell to both parties. They will get a befitting reply,” Banerjee added.
The chief minister said the CPM and the BJP should have thought about the consequences of the legal action before filing a case.
Soon after the verdict the BJP state president and junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar and Suvendu had demanded the arrest of Mamata and held accountable for the scam, in which former education minister Partha Chatterjee is facing trial.
“To those demanding my arrest, I welcome them. Catch me if you can,” Mamata hurled the challenge back.
Mamata said despite having the highest regard for the judiciary she could not accept the verdict.
“We have no documents about the so-called tainted candidates. If we were given the time we could have found out,” she said. “Why didn’t they think, why didn’t they allow the government to think. There are one lakh vacancies in schools. We could not fill these because of this case.”
Suvendu, addressing a news conference soon after Mamata had wound up her defence before the media, said both the courts had given the state government ample time to demarcate the tainted and untainted candidates.
“The Calcutta high court and the Supreme Court had repeatedly asked the state government to give the details but they could not. Supernumerary posts were created to accommodate those who had got jobs using unfair means. The chief minister and her cabinet should be behind bars,” Suvendu said.
Mamata had said she would meet the deprived students on Monday at a convention in Netaji Indoor stadium.
“What is she going to tell them? What can she tell them? She is the one who has caused them the maximum harm,” said Suvendu.
Majumdar said the BJP youth wing will march to Kalighat Monday when she will be at Netaji Indoor stadium.
“We are waiting for the Supreme Court’s verdict on the creation of supernumerary posts. These posts were created to save the tainted candidates. This was a decision taken by the cabinet. All of them should be in prison,” Majumdar said.
Majumdar said the apex verdict had proved the state government’s recruitment process was corrupt.
“Her party leaders took cash-for-jobs. Because of Mamata and the Trinamool the teachers are facing this situation. Today, she is blaming Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Sukanta Majumdar and Abhijit Ganguly.”
The BJP state president said the SC verdict was a vindication for the former judge turned BJP MP Ganguly.
“When he was a high court judge on the basis of evidence he gave his judgments. The SC verdict proves he was right. When form the government we will set up a commission to investigate Mamata’s misdeeds,” the BJP state president said.
On April 13, the BJP will hold a march from College Square to Rani Rashmoni road on this issue.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya pointed out the scale of injustice. “When the whole process of recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools has been termed ‘tainted’ by the Supreme Court, it cannot be determined who was eligible and who was not. One must also think of the interest of those lakhs of candidates who had been deprived of a fair selection process for the jobs.”
