A primary school teacher was allegedly stopped mid-speech by a Trinamool panchayat member at a meeting of the West Bengal Trinamool Primary Teachers’ Association in Sitalkuchi, Cooch Behar.

The teacher, Yasin Mian, was speaking on Saturday evening about the woeful state of primary education in Bengal, when his mic was apparently snatched away.

A video of the incident purportedly showing the mic being taken away from the teacher surfaced on Sunday, triggering a political row. The Telegraph has not independently verified the authenticity of the video.

The incident occurred at a meeting held at New Gosairhat Newtown Primary School at Sitalkuchi under the Mathabhanga subdivision, around 50km from here. The programme was organised by the association’s Sitalkuchi and Sitalkuchi East circles.

Several senior Trinamool Congress leaders and office-bearers, including Girindranath Barman, chairman of the district Trinamool Congress, Rajat Barma, chairman of the district primary school council, and Subrata Naha, district president of the Trinamool Primary Teachers’ Association, were present at the meeting.

Yasin, a teacher of Awalikura Fourth Plan Primary School, spoke about what he described as the poor state of the primary education system. He said government primary schools lacked basic infrastructure, forcing parents to enrol their children in private schools at higher costs.

During Yasin’s speech, Sribas Barman, a teacher of Gosairhat Newtown Primary School and a Trinamool panchayat member of Sitalkuchi, snatched the mic.

On Sunday, the BJP alleged that Yasin was silenced for speaking the truth about the education system in Trinamool rule.

“Only a teacher knows best what is actually happening in schools. The microphone was snatched because he was speaking the truth. Primary education has collapsed under the present state government due to a lack of infrastructure for teaching and learning,” said Biraj Basu, vice-president of the BJP’s Cooch Behar district committee.

Trinamool rejected the allegations. District Trinamool chairman Barman said: “This was an internal organisational meeting of our teachers’ association. There was no controversy.”

Sribas denied he had snatched the mic.

“Yasin was repeatedly raising the same issues. There were other speakers as well, so he was requested to shorten his speech. No snatching of any mic took place,” Barman said.

Yasin declined to comment.