RG Kar protesters and Left join teachers in march for the jobless
Times of India | 11 April 2025
123 Kolkata: A number of individuals, who marched during the R G Kar protests, have joined the agitation by the deprived teachers, who took out a rally on Thursday, criticising the assault on teachers by policemen at the Kasba school district inspector's office a day before.
The RG Kar protests, which garnered significant public sentiment and turned into a mass movement in the initial phases, lost momentum and saw a sharp decline in participants after prominent CPM functionaries started directly joining the rallies and reclaiming the night calls.
During Thursday's rally from Sealdah to Esplanade, TOI found junior doctors like Asfakulla Naiya, Debasish Halder and Soumyadeep Roy, who were at the forefront of the months-long agitation demanding justice for the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar. There were also multiple prominent faces like actor and CPM functionary Badsha Moitra, doctor Punyabrata Goon from Abhaya Mancha and several known individuals from the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and ultra-Left student organisations, including the Progressive Democratic Students' Federation (PDSF).
"There is no politics or any other reason behind joining this rally. We are here to offer our solidarity with the teachers as we are also touched by the humiliation they faced, first by being stripped of their jobs and then by the assault by cops. The state's police minister (CM Mamata Banerjee) will have to take responsibility for the same," said Halder, a junior doctor from Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, who became one of the most prominent faces of the RG Kar protests.
Walking alongside him and the protesting teachers was a group of students from Jadavpur University, owing allegiance to the ultra-Left organisation Progressive Democratic Students' Federation (PDSF). "After the murder and death of Abhaya at her workplace, this SSC scam and subsequent attack on teachers highlight a lack of accountability on the part of the Trinamool-led govt. That is the reason we are out on the road again," said Durjoy Roy, pursuing a Master's at JU.
There was also a large team of elderly men and women — all Left sympathisers and many members of Abhaya Mancha from Barasat and Kolkata — who joined the march. "We have joined the rally leaving our political identities outside. We haven't come here with any political flag or agenda but have joined the rally just to stay with the teachers in their quest for justice. We will continue to walk with them in their future protests as well," said Goon.
Later in the evening, CPM workers led by party functionary Sujan Chakraborty were also seen taking out a rally from Rasbehari to Gariahat under the party banner, demanding a public apology by the CM. "The home minister (CM Mamata Banerjee) should publicly apologise for the manner in which her policemen kicked and assaulted jobless teachers making legitimate demands. The govt is siding with the tainted teachers and corrupt politicians who took money for offering jobs," said Chakraborty.