With Opposition events in West Bengal hitting the streets and a sizeable part of the intelligentsia voicing its protest, the state police’s current midnight crackdown on protesting candidates who’ve cleared the Lecturers’ Eligibility Take a look at (TET) has solely pushed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) additional right into a spot of trouble. This comes not lengthy after the arrests of former social gathering heavyweight Partha Chatterjee and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya in reference to the varsity jobs rip-off.
The social gathering’s troubles began in July when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the then Cupboard minister and social gathering normal secretary Partha Chatterjee for his alleged involvement within the faculty employees recruitment rip-off. The alleged irregularities occurred when he held the schooling portfolio. Not solely that, greater than Rs 50 crore in money and different valuables, claimed to be proceeds of crime from the rip-off, had been recovered from flats owned by Partha’s shut affiliate Arpita Mukherjee. Earlier this month, the ED arrested Bhattacharya who’s the previous West Bengal Board of Main Schooling (WBBPE) chairperson.
Since then, the Opposition has been on the offensive towards the TMC authorities. However any efforts of the ruling social gathering to shift the general public’s consideration away from the rip-off got here to a nought following the police crackdown on protesting educating job candidates in Salt Lake on Thursday. The police motion drew widespread condemnation. Late Thursday evening, a big police contingent eliminated virtually 500 TET-qualified (2014) candidates who had been staging a sit-in since Monday afternoon searching for job appointment letters from the road exterior the WBBPE workplace. The police stated they took the motion because the protesters didn’t budge regardless of repeated requests. A lot of the candidates had been pushed away in police vans.
On Saturday, intellectuals comprising writers, teachers, and filmmakers organised a protest rally from Victoria Home in Dharmatala to the Academy of Nice Arts. A number of individuals, together with educationist Pabitra Sarkar, movie director Anik Dutta, actors Badsha Maitra, Debdut Ghosh and Sreelekha Mitra, poet Mandakranta Sen, and educational Malini Bhattacharya participated within the rally.
A number of Opposition leaders such because the CPI(M)’s Mohammad Salim and Biman Basu, and Abdul Mannan of the Congress additionally participated within the rally with out a political banner.
Badsha Maitra stated throughout the rally, “They (protesters) are real candidates who’re combating for his or her reputable demand. As an alternative of giving them jobs, the federal government arrested them in the midst of the evening. This isn’t acceptable.”
Movie director Anik Dutta stated it was an “insufferable scenario”.
Eminent filmmaker Aparna Sen and author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay too criticised the state authorities’s stand and motion towards the protesting instructor aspirants.
Sen posted on Twitter, “The Trinamool govt is flouting the essential democratic rights of the hunger-strikers! Part 144 issued towards a non-violent protest! Why? I strongly condemn the undemocratic and unethical motion of the West Bengal govt!”
Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay stated, “This agitation is happening for a number of days. I feel the federal government ought to take a look at this significantly and begin a dialogue with the protesters. In any other case, it would have a destructive influence on individuals.”
Actors and theatre personalities resembling Kaushik Sen and Bibhash Chakraborty additionally didn’t mince their phrases towards the federal government on the matter.
The TMC formally dismissed the protests and criticism from the intellectuals and denied this was a second of disaster for the social gathering. Brushing apart the voices of protest, TMC MP Saugata Roy stated, “Those that walked within the rally are generally known as CPI(M) intellectuals. The CPI(M) doesn’t have a single seat within the Meeting. Due to this fact, this is not going to have any influence. The federal government is taking a look at it significantly and can resolve the matter quickly.”
Nonetheless, a bit of TMC leaders just isn’t taking the backlash from the intelligentsia frivolously and is worried concerning the impact it would have on the social gathering’s picture. A senior chief stated, “We should always bear in mind the times from 2010 when these intellectuals criticised the then Left Entrance authorities and their social gathering leaders dismissed the identical. It should solely snowball into a much bigger disaster if we don’t resolve the difficulty instantly.”