Eight months after West Bengal saw widespread protests by sections of doctors, students and common people triggered by the rape-and-murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9, 2024, the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is now grappling with a growing agitation of school teachers, who lost their jobs in the wake of a recent verdict by the Supreme Court.
The protesting teachers have launched an indefinite sit-in against the TMC government outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) headquarters at Salt Lake on the outskirts of Kolkata since Monday, which has created a resonance among a section of the civil society.
Turning down appeals from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Education Minister Bratya Basu to call off the stir and return to their classes, the teachers have declared that they would continue with their protest till their demand for publication of a list of “tainted” and “untainted” candidates recruited by the SSC in 2016, is met.
In its April 3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a Calcutta High Court order, annulling the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of the state-run and state-aided schools as it found large-scale irregularities in the recruitment process conducted by the SSC in 2016.
On a plea moved by the state government, the apex court on April 17 extended till December 31 the services of terminated teachers found untainted by the CBI, but offered no such breather to the non-teaching staff.
At their protest site outside the SSC headquarters, the teachers raised the slogan “we want justice”, even as they called upon all sections of society to support their cause.
Several doctors, who were at the forefront of the campaign to seek justice for the R G Kar victim, also went to the SSC office to extend solidarity with the teachers. A civil society group Abhaya Mancha, which also played a key role in the R G Kar movement, also announced its support for them.
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Like the R G Kar episode, when the Opposition parties such as the BJP and CPI(M) limited their roles to rallying behind the doctors’ agitation rather than leading it, they seem to be following the same strategy in the case of the teachers’ stir too.
Several BJP and CPI(M) leaders have extended their support to the teachers’ campaign. BJP leader Sajal Ghosh brought water for them at the SSC protest venue on Monday midnight, saying “Let it be teachers’ movement. Let’s not make it political. These teachers may belong to your family or my family. Everybody should show solidarity with them.”
The Junior Doctors Forum’s leader Aniket Mahato, who was a key face of the RG Kar movement, also visited the teachers’ dharna site to show his support. “Teachers’ demand is justified. What government has done with them is wrong. We have come here as citizens to back their campaign,” he said.
Abhaya Mancha’s convener Punyabrata Gun said, “We have seen that the government is meting out injustice to the teachers. We will continue to stand by the teachers’ movement.”
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The doctors’ R G Kar stir, spearheaded by the Junior Doctors Forum, had snowballed into a statewide movement for months involving sections of the civil society and the Opposition parties.
On Tuesday, Mamata urged the teachers to resume their work, asking them to leave the task of identifying the tainted and untainted teachers to the government. She also assured them that her government will protect their salaries. Bratya Basu also urged the teachers to refrain from doing anything that might weaken the review petition that the state government has proposed to move before the apex court.
The teachers have rejected their appeals, alleging that the government was only trying to “buy time” so that their agitation fizzles out.
The TMC camp seems to be cautious, adopting a “wait and watch” approach.
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The party however claims that the teachers’ stir would not affect its dominance in state politics, citing the instance of the six Assembly bypolls held in the wake of the R G Kar movement, which were all won by it.
A senior TMC leader said, “The teachers’ protest would not damage our electoral prospects in the 2026 Assembly polls as our party organisation right down to the grassroots level remains strong and well-entrenched. But this is also true that such repeated civil society movements may damage us politically.”
TMC leader Jayprakash Majumder said, “We are not worried. Our CM is the only person who is honestly trying to save the jobs of these teachers. And in West Bengal nobody can defeat TMC now. The fight here is only for the second, third and fourth spots.”
Sajal Ghosh however said, “If the TMC government has even an iota of humanity left, it would release the list of tainted and untainted teachers. But they will not do so because the list would only expose their corruption.”
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CPI(M) Central Committee member Minakshi Mukherjee said, “We are with the teachers’ movement from the beginning. We are fighting against the TMC government’s corruption… It has dashed people’s hopes of getting teachers’ job. Our members and teacher bodies are backing this movement.”
