Fasting teachers threaten to step up protests

PTI, KOLKATA, APRIL 10, 2025 : BJP Yuva Morcha state president Indranil Khan on Thursday extended his support to a section of teachers who began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) office, protesting the loss of their jobs after a Supreme Court ruling nullified their appointments.

Khan vowed not to remain silent until justice is delivered and warned that the party would intensify street-level protests if the matter remains unresolved.

The agitating teachers—part of the 25,753 whose appointments were cancelled after the Supreme Court deemed the 2016 SSC recruitment process "vitiated and tainted"—have launched an indefinite relay hunger strike demanding redressal.

Khan demanded that the WBSSC immediately publish the OMR list of the SSC 2016 recruitment test, alleging the state government was "not allowing the SSC to publish the list to shield certain elements within the ruling TMC who had helped tainted candidates crack the SSC test in exchange of money."

Asked about comments made by West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim—that the protesting candidates could wait for some time to help the state find an amicable solution—Khan questioned whether Hakim could guarantee job security for the 'untainted' teachers in light of the Supreme Court order.

He accused Hakim and other senior government functionaries of being "inhuman and insensitive" to the plight and agonies of thousands of young, meritorious students who studied for years to qualify for the SSC exams and are now facing a disaster in their lives due to the sudden loss of jobs.

Khan further accused the ruling dispensation of aiding and abetting arrested ministers like Partha Chatterjee, saying they were being treated as VVIPs with police escorts.

"Their unscrupulous activities led to the present crisis affecting thousands of eligible teachers. A scandal of such a scale involving teachers' recruitment is unprecedented in the country," he added.

Joining the protesters in front of the SSC building, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, blamed the state administration and its agencies for the teachers’ plight.

As a judge, Gangopadhyay had ordered a CBI investigation in November 2021 into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process. He had also ordered the termination of more than 25,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-run and aided schools after finding irregularities.

That order was upheld by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court and, subsequently, by the Supreme Court.