Displacing People Out of Their Jobs Is an Injustice!
The Supreme Court, in an unprecedented judgement, has nullified the appointments of 26,000 secondary and higher-secondary government school teachers of West Bengal. These are the ones who have been recruited through the West Bengal School Service Commission examination of the years 2014 and 2016. Subsequent charges of corruption were raised against this whole process and forced a CBI-led investigation ordered by the Calcutta High Court in 2021. Following the report submitted by the central agency, these teachers were laid off by the Calcutta High Court in 2023. Since then, the terminated teachers and the aspirants from these vacant jobs have both remained on the streets in the hopes of justice, but the centre and the state have been largely apathetic to the plight of all of them.
This ruling is not just unprecedented in India, it directly contradicts the principle of the Indian constitution in upholding the citizens’ fundamental right to employment. This ruling also lacks a critical view of the parts the central and the state governments have played in this disastrous situation and blames the whole fiasco on deserving Indian youth. Adding to the apathy, this ruling also serves the purpose of ambiguity in all aspects. It orders the corrupt individuals to return their withdrawn salaries and exempts the non-corrupt individuals. This, while taking away the responsibility of the state in the corruption charges, acknowledges that not all of these retrenched teachers are corrupt. Meanwhile, CBI's investigation has found 14% of higher secondary and 8% of secondary appointments to be involved in corruption.
Despite this, the entire 2016 recruitment panel has been scrapped. This not only affects the 26,000 retrenched teachers and their families, but also denies the aspirants their rights to employment. The state and the centre have not been able to conduct any school-teacher recruitment drives in the years following 2016 in West Bengal. This puts the livelihoods of many and the public education system in jeopardy. On top of that, this verdict pits the retrenched teachers against the aspiring jobseekers at a time when unemployment is the highest after independence. The responsibility for this disaster lies with the Indian judicial system and the corrupt state government, who have been completely apathetic to the people of West Bengal.
If on the one hand, the TMC led State Government has refused to expose those engaged in corruption in SSC recruitments, the BJP has acted in every way to ensure that all 26,000 school teachers lose their jobs so that they can settle their political score with the TMC.
The unprecedented nature of the verdict that has targeted all 26,000 teachers sets a dangerous precedent where the livelihood of such a massive number of people are being taken away to feed the political interest of those ruling at centre. The independence of the judiciary is under question in today’s India. Never before had a sitting Chief Justice of India invited the head of the executive, the Prime Minister in a private affair like the Ganapathi Puja. DY Chandrachud while serving as the CJI not only invited the PM in his house, but also made it a point to publicise it right before his retirement. The political targeting of opposition leaders, including the then Chief Minister of Delhi and Chief Minister of Jharkhand by weaponising draconian provisions of PMLA, to opening doors for rampant violation of the Places of Worship Act by none other than the Supreme Court and several other instances have raised valid question as to whether the highest courts are independent enough to ensure justice, especially when justice may not go well with the political agenda of the party ruling at the centre. We remember how just two days before the verdict of nullifying the jobs of 26,000 people was pronounced by the Calcutta High Court, Subhendu Adhikari, BJP leader of West Bengal said that an explosion was going to happen and that it would shake the state government. All these happened during the Loksabha Election, 2024.
We, the Revolutionary Youth Association have stood in solidarity with the teachers from the inception of this fight against corruption and the struggle to protect livelihoods. Our solidarity also lies with the thousands of job seeking youth that fell prey to the corruption channels, protected by the West Bengal state government, CBI and the Indian judiciary. We staunchly believe that people’s movement, alone, can bring justice to the agitating teachers and the job-seeking youth. We remain committed to supporting their movement to safeguard their jobs and will stand by all their movements for justice. We are also committed to ensure that the future of 26,000 teachers are not sacrificed to serve the power game being played between the central and the state government.
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