Bengal parties train guns at each other after SSC ruling
Times of India | 4 April 2025
Kolkata: Following the Supreme Court verdict cancelling the 2016 appointment of school staff in Bengal, a fierce war of words ensued among the political parties in the state. All parties, however, showed sympathy towards those who lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court verdict.
On Thursday, a bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar concluded that the school recruitment process in question was fundamentally flawed. It cancelled the appointment of 25,752 staffers in Bengal's state-run and state-aided schools, citing serious irregularities.
While Trinamool levelled allegations against the BJP-led Centre, claiming it engineered the legal proceedings to disrupt Bengal's educational framework, BJP and CPM criticised the state administration and CM Mamata Banerjee, claiming that she had shielded tainted candidates.
Holding the CM and Trinamool Congress responsible, state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said: "If her govt could distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving, teachers and staff who had qualified in the right way wouldn't have lost their jobs today."
Leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded Banerjee's resignation and immediate arrest of all members of her cabinet. He also demanded the state used the CM's relief fund to pay salaries of all the teachers and staff members who had lost their jobs.
"This govt has failed you. If we come to office, we will do our best to restore your jobs. No documents will get lost. The OMR sheets were retrieved and are lying safely with CBI," said Adhikari, while congratulating former Calcutta HC judge and Tamluk MP Avijit Ganguly. Adhikari said BJP would hold a ‘Nabanna Abhijan' over the issue after Ram Navami.
CPM neta Sujan Chakraborty wondered why govt couldn't differentiate between the deserving and the tainted over an entire year. "It's been a year, and govt still can't identify who is qualified and who is not? How much money was taken? Did state govt and the party in office have to dismiss the qualified to protect some incompetents who were hired through bribery? Is the govt siding with the unqualified?" Chakraborty said.