‘Go back’ cry at judge-turned-BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay at teachers sit-in
Telegraph | 13 April 2025
Judge-turned-BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay was booed and told to “go back” on Friday by teachers and school staff on a sit-in outside the school service commission office in Salt Lake on Friday.
Gangopadhyay arrived outside the SSC office at 5.30pm and started to address the gathering of men and women in distress after losing their jobs following last week’s Supreme Court order. A man standing next to him held a loudhailer near his mouth as he spoke.
Initially, a small group applauded him as he said the SSC must publish scanned copies of the OMR sheets within two hours.
The mood changed soon as he refused to answer audience queries on whether he would take it up with the Prime Minister or if he had ever raised their issue in Parliament.
The audience accused him of “playing politics”.
Since morning, many of the protesters held aloft posters denouncing politics on their joblessness. “Don’t add a political colour to our fight,” was one of the posters.
“We want a resolution to this impasse but we do not want political parties to use us as pawns,” said Pinki Chakraborty, holding one of the no-politics posters.
As Gangopadhyay mounted a goods vehicle at the protest venue with the aim of addressing the gathering, the melee of teachers shouted at him at the top of their voice to get off and leave.
As the chorus grew, Gangopadhyay started walking away. The teachers and school staff trailed him with “go back” slogans.
“The Naxals, SUCI and CPM destroyed the protests for Abhaya (the protests following the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital) as stooges of Trinamool. Some of those stooges gathered and raised the slogans,” said Gangopadhyay, who had ordered a CBI probe into irregularities in school recruitments.
Education minister Bratya Basu said in the evening that the aggrieved teachers were now realising who was really with them and who was using them for political gains.
“Everyone knows who took away the jobs.... It is increasingly becoming clearer,” Basu said.