West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would abide by the Supreme Court verdict on School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment but asserted that she “could not accept it”.
The top court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s last year order to cancel the entire 2016 recruitment panel of the West Bengal SSC. It resulted in the loss of over 25,000 jobs.
Speaking at a press conference, Banerjee expressed her emotional and moral support for the majority of deserving candidates who lost their jobs due to fraudulent practices by a few corrupt individuals.
"While I have the highest respect for the judiciary and judges, I cannot accept the judgment from a humanitarian point of view," said Banerjee.
She assured that the state government would ensure that the fresh recruitment process is completed within three months, in line with the Supreme Court’s directive. “I have asked the education minister to inform the SSC, which is an autonomous organisation, what we feel.”
CM Banerjee further announced that she would attend the meeting organised by those who lost jobs on March 7, urging them to remain calm, avoid mental stress and be patient.
The chief minister also suggested that political motives were behind the verdict, accusing the BJP and CPIM of being responsible for the hardships faced by those who lost their jobs despite being innocent. She specifically blamed senior advocate and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, claiming that thousands had lost their jobs due to his actions.
“The BJP's goal is to dismantle the education system. We will fight this battle through legal means,” CM Banerjee said. “If these families are left in crisis, the BJP and the CPI(M) will also be affected. If anything happens, the responsibility will be on them.”
The CM also blamed former Calcutta High Court justice-turned BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay. "The judge who first delivered this order in the high court is today a BJP MP," she said. "How can they speak so boldly today?"
She also attacked Sukanta Majumdar, the Bengal BJP president and union minister of state for education, after he directly blamed her and her partymen for the job losses. “When you first filed the case, did you ever consider who was qualified and who was not? You didn’t even give the government a chance to assess the situation.”
Soon after the Supreme Court’s verdict, Majumdar released a video message on his social media handles. He accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CM Banerjee of sacrificing the jobs of deserving and qualified candidates to safeguard the unqualified candidates.
“My question is, why didn’t Mamata Banerjee’s School Service Commission and the state government separate the qualified from the unqualified candidates? If the state government had done this in front of the honourable court, then the jobs of 25,573 people would not have been lost," the union minister said.
Meanwhile, his party colleague and leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari also launched a scathing attack on the state government. He demanded the arrest and imprisonment of those in the state cabinet who were involved in the corruption.
“When we come to power, we promise that we will separate the tainted and untainted candidates which the state government and the school service commission failed to do,” LoP Adhikari said.
Mohammed Salim, the state secretary of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, claimed the Supreme Court’s verdict is a testament that the entire education system of West Bengal has been destroyed by the TMC. He urged those who lost jobs to unite and fight against the corrupt regime of Trinamool.
In a video message from Madurai, where the CPI(M)’s 24th party congress is underway, Salim was seen attacking the BJP. “The BJP will claim that they will ensure fair recruitment, but that is not the case. This has happened in other states as well. Madhya Pradesh was the first to witness such corruption. Trinamool and BJP are just two sides of the same coin.”
