School job scam: TMC councillor squats holding ears to apologise, targets own leaders

'Leader of Opposition Suvendu Babu is giving big speeches only because our leadership is silent. On their behalf, I seek forgiveness,' Parthsarathi Maiti is heard saying in the video.

Tamluk (WB): A TMC councillor in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district has left his party red-faced by posting a video of himself doing squats while clutching his ears, a traditional act of self-punishment, and apologising to the people for what he described as the complicity and silence of his own party’s leaders in the school recruitment scam.

Parthsarathi Maiti, a lawyer by profession and councillor of Ward No. 10 of Tamluk Municipality, is seen in the viral video against the corner of a bare room, crouching and rising with ears firmly clasped, as he says in a strained voice, "Our district leaders took money but are not speaking up." "Leader of Opposition Suvendu Babu is giving big speeches only because our leadership is silent. On their behalf, I seek forgiveness," he was heard saying in the video.

He was referring to Suvendu Adhikari who left the TMC and joined the BJP in December 2020 ahead of the assembly elections.

Maiti alleged that a section of TMC leaders in Purba Medinipur, known as the backyard of Adhikari, "facilitated the illegal appointment of unqualified teachers during 2016", and were now shielding the "mastermind" despite everyone knowing his name.

Appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools were annulled by the Supreme Court in April on grounds that the recruitment process in 2016 was “tainted and vitiated” beyond redemption.

"Purba Medinipur is a land of freedom and movements. But today, Suvendu roams around proudly because some of our leaders helped him. The shame is that all district leaders know who the kingpin is, yet no one dares to speak," he claimed in the video.

PTI, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the viral video.

The outburst comes after the School Service Commission recently released a list of disqualified candidates, triggering uproar as several names allegedly linked to ruling party functionaries and their kin figured in it.

The West Bengal School Service Commission on Saturday released a list of 1,804 'tainted' teachers in connection with the 2016 State Level Selection Test.

Adhikari had earlier dismissed such claims by TMC leaders.

"None of my relatives or associates figures in the list of disqualified teachers. Any allegation against me is baseless," he had said.

The BJP called the councillor's theatrics a desperate bid for attention.

"His own party does not take him seriously. He is trying to become the centre of attention with such antics. We are not giving importance to this," said Tamluk Municipality BJP councillor Shabari Chakraborty.

Former district president Tapan Bandopadhyay added, "The masterminds of the scam are in TMC itself. Dragging Suvendu Adhikari's name is just an attempt to deflect.".

The ruling party of the state sought to distance itself..

TMC's Tamluk organisational district president Sujit Roy said, "Being a lawyer, how can he make such irresponsible remarks? In the name of fighting for the party, he is maligning TMC."