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The political heat in West Bengal has been giving the rising mercury levels serious competition since the high court order.
Thousands of teachers, whose appointments were declared null and void by the Calcutta high court order, gathered at the vast Shahid Minar ground at Esplanade in central Kolkata, braving the sweltering heat.
Divided into groups according to districts, they are preparing to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.
It's their only sliver of hope.
"We are eligible candidates, and our appointments were made following due process. There are no complaints against us," Chinmay Mandal, a spokesperson for the terminated teachers said, asking, "Why are we being grouped with those who have obtained appointments by illegal means?" He pointed out that their number is also much smaller.
Mandal is seen explaining the documentation process for the appeal to different groups scattered across the ground. This process has been ongoing since the verdict.
On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at least 2,000 made their way to the Shahid Minar ground to submit their details -- the despair and disappointment palpable on their faces.
A school teacher from Purba Medinipur (who did not wish to be identified) is lost in her thoughts. Her husband, who works in a vocational training institute, gets paid at long intervals. In effect, she has been running the household.
"I don't know what I am going to do next. The appeal is our only hope," she says.
The tales repeat -- Mithun Mondal, also from Medinipur, is the sole breadwinner of his family. He has vaguely heard about the appeal and has come all the way to figure out the next course of action.
But even as the terminated teachers prepare for an appeal in the Supreme Court, the West Bengal government moved the apex court on Wednesday.
Strike the gavel
A division bench of the Calcutta high court, on Monday, April 22, 2024, cancelled the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of government-aided schools through the 2016 state-level selection test.
The court also directed persons appointed outside the panel, after the expiry of the panel, and those who submitted blank optical mark recognition sheets but obtained appointments to return all remuneration and benefits received by them to the state exchequer along with interest calculated at 12 per cent per annum within four weeks.
The alleged recruitment scam in the West Bengal School Service Commission came to light when senior Trinamool Congress leader and then West Bengal industry minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2022.
Mercury rising
The political heat in West Bengal has been giving the rising mercury levels serious competition since the high court order. It has provided fresh ammunition to Opposition parties that have been attacking the TMC over issues of corruption.
Addressing a rally in West Bengal on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said it was a matter of shame that jobs were sold for lakhs of rupees.
Communist Party of India-Marxist West Bengal State Secretary Mohammed Salim told Business Standard, "We have been pointing to all-round corruption since 2011, particularly in the education sector. It just got reinforced."
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has termed the verdict 'illegal' and vowed to stand by those who lost jobs.
Political analysts believe that the high court order delivered in the middle of elections will have serious ramifications.
"This will be a watershed event for both the Bharatiya Janata Party and TMC. Who will be able to capitalise on this -- the BJP or the TMC -- will decide the performance in this election," political observer Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury said.
Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty said the verdict had changed the orientation of the election campaign.
"Mamata is playing the victim card and saying that jobs have been taken. In politics, sentiments matter."
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
