With Opposition parties in West Bengal hitting the streets and a sizeable section of the intelligentsia voicing its protest, the state police’s recent midnight crackdown on protesting candidates who have cleared the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) has only pushed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) further into a spot of bother. This comes not long after the arrests of former party heavyweight Partha Chatterjee and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya in connection with the school jobs scam.
The party’s troubles started in July when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the then Cabinet minister and party general secretary Partha Chatterjee for his alleged involvement in the school staff recruitment scam. The alleged irregularities occurred when he held the education portfolio. Not only that, more than Rs 50 crore in cash and other valuables, claimed to be proceeds of crime from the scam, were recovered from flats owned by Partha’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee. Earlier this month, the ED arrested Bhattacharya who is the former West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) chairperson.
Since then, the Opposition has been on the offensive against the TMC government. But any efforts of the ruling party to shift the public’s attention away from the scam came to a nought following the police crackdown on protesting teaching job candidates in Salt Lake on Thursday. The police action drew widespread condemnation. Late Thursday night, a large police contingent removed almost 500 TET-qualified (2014) candidates who had been staging a sit-in since Monday afternoon seeking job appointment letters from the street outside the WBBPE office. The police said they took the action as the protesters did not budge despite repeated requests. Most of the candidates were driven away in police vans.
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On Saturday, intellectuals comprising writers, academics, and filmmakers organised a protest rally from Victoria House in Dharmatala to the Academy of Fine Arts. Several people, including educationist Pabitra Sarkar, film director Anik Dutta, actors Badsha Maitra, Debdut Ghosh and Sreelekha Mitra, poet Mandakranta Sen, and academic Malini Bhattacharya participated in the rally.
Several Opposition leaders such as the CPI(M)’s Mohammad Salim and Biman Basu, and Abdul Mannan of the Congress also participated in the rally without a political banner.
Badsha Maitra said during the rally, “They (protesters) are genuine candidates who are fighting for their legitimate demand. Instead of giving them jobs, the government arrested them in the middle of the night. This is not acceptable.”
Film director Anik Dutta said it was an “unbearable situation”.
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Eminent filmmaker Aparna Sen and writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay too criticised the state government’s stand and action against the protesting teacher aspirants.
Sen posted on Twitter, “The Trinamool govt is flouting the basic democratic rights of the hunger-strikers! Section 144 issued against a non-violent protest! Why? I strongly condemn the undemocratic and unethical action of the West Bengal govt!”
Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay said, “This agitation is going on for several days. I think the government should look at this seriously and start a dialogue with the protesters. Otherwise, it will have a negative impact on people.”
Actors and theatre personalities such as Kaushik Sen and Bibhash Chakraborty also did not mince their words against the government on the matter.
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The TMC officially dismissed the protests and criticism from the intellectuals and denied this was a moment of crisis for the party. Brushing aside the voices of protest, TMC MP Saugata Roy said, “Those who walked in the rally are known as CPI(M) intellectuals. The CPI(M) does not have a single seat in the Assembly. Therefore, this will not have any impact. The government is looking at it seriously and will resolve the matter soon.”
However, a section of TMC leaders is not taking the backlash from the intelligentsia lightly and is concerned about the effect it will have on the party’s image. A senior leader said, “We should remember the days from 2010 when these intellectuals criticised the then Left Front government and their party leaders dismissed the same. It will only snowball into a bigger crisis if we do not resolve the issue immediately.”
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