West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference, in Kolkata
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: Though the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded her resignation after the Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teachers and other employees in the schools in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought to turn the tables, accusing the saffron party of trying to disrupt the state’s education system.
She is also planning to meet the teachers and non-teaching employees, who lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court’s order, at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on April 7.
“I have heard and read reports of huge cash being recovered from a judge's residence. If you recover money from a sitting judge's home, he is only transferred. Then why were these candidates not transferred?” the Trinamool Congress supremo said, indirectly referring to the controversy over the alleged discovery of cash from the residence of a judge of the Delhi High Court and his subsequent repatriation to the Allahabad High Court.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar on Thursday upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict dated April 22, 2024, annulling the appointments of the teachers and non-teaching employees and ordering the Trinamool Congress-led state government to initiate a fresh selection process.
Banerjee alleged that a conspiracy by the BJP and the CPI(M) had led to the situation in which so many teachers and non-teaching employees of the schools in West Bengal had to lose jobs.
“The first judge to give this order is now a BJP MP,” she said, subtly hitting out at former judge of the Calcutta High Court Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk in West Bengal last year on the saffron party’s ticket.
She also targeted eminent lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a CPI (M) member of the Rajya Sabha, for moving the court alleging irregularities in the recruitment of the teachers and non-teaching employees of the schools.
“I have the utmost respect for the judiciary and judges, but from a humanitarian perspective, I cannot accept this judgment. As a citizen of this country, I have every right to express my opinion. While I respect the judge and the judiciary, I do not agree with the verdict,” said the chief minister, adding: “How can a single person’s crime lead to punishment for all?”
“If the BJP wants to send me to jail for supporting them (the dismissed school employees), they can,” she said.
The BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) cited the verdict of the Supreme Court as a vindication of the allegations of rampant corruption by the Trinamool Congress’s government in West Bengal. “Even the teachers and non-teaching employees, who were recruited purely on the basis of merit, now lost their jobs along with the ones who paid bribes to get employment. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should resign, taking the full responsibility for this mess,” Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly and a BJP heavyweight, said.
“The sole responsibility for this massive corruption in teacher recruitment lies with the failed Chief Minister of the state, @MamataOfficial. The Supreme Court's verdict has made it clear how, under Mamata Banerjee's rule, the merit of educated unemployed youth in West Bengal was sold in exchange for money!” Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP chief and Union Minister of State for Education, posted on X.
Mohammad Salim, the state secretary of the CPI(M), alleged that the scam in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching employees of the schools since the TMC’s ascent to power in 2011 had tainted the entire education system of West Bengal.