West Bengal Opposition parties take to streets in support of protesting TET candidates

The separate political protests were triggered after the police initiated a midnight crackdown on agitating candidates in Salt Lake, near Kolkata

In a rare instance of solidarity, three major political opponents of the All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal—the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left parties, and the Congress—took to the streets on Friday, albeit separately, to show support towards protesting jobseekers.

The separate political protests were triggered after the police initiated a midnight crackdown on agitated candidates in Salt Lake, near Kolkata.

The candidates were protesting since Monday—it later turned into a hunger strike—outside the West Bengal Board of Primary Education office, seeking immediate appointments, as they had already cleared the teachers’ eligibility test.

The police’s action came after repeated requests to the protesters. On Thursday, responding to a petition filed by the Board, the Calcutta High Court had directed the police to enforce Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure near the Board’s office.

Consequent to the police action, Students’ Federation of India and Democratic Youth Federation of India staged an agitation in Salt Lake on Friday.

Also Read | TET candidates protest in Kolkata over recruitment; Section 144 imposed

The supporters, however, were removed as they squatted and held each other to avoid eviction. In a statement issued on Friday, Left Front chairman Biman Bose condemned the action and called for a protest on Saturday afternoon in the heart of the city.

BJP’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, took a procession out from the party’s head office. The leaders and supporters were detained after walking just a part of the intended route.

The Congress, led by Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, also took to the streets.

BJP MP Saumitra Khan wrote to Union minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan: “The future builders of our West Bengal, brothers and sisters were on a hunger strike for the last 100 hours, but to suppress the voice of all these, the Bengal government has sent the police…and forcefully put these deserving candidates in jail.”

“Not only that, but the police also lathicharged these innocents…those who fight for their right or for their deserving place,” Khan stated.

In support, filmmaker Aparna Sen tweeted: “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!”

However, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the issue was administrative. The government believes in democratic processes, and the chief minister herself has clarified that she approves justified protests, Ghosh said.