On a balmy winter afternoon last December, I saw on TV one of the most painful sights unfolding before my eyes: a woman, aged around 30, sitting on the ground at a ‘dharna manch’ at Dharmatala, weeping piteously as a man shaved off her long black hair with deft flicks of a straight-edged barber’s razor.
Rashmoni Patra, who was getting her head shaved, was seeking justice after losing her chance at a job as a government school teacher, which she believed she had qualified for, to an unqualified candidate, who had paid big bucks. To somebody. A man sat next to her crying profusely, as did another woman standing nearby. Enveloped in a shroud of silence, everyone locked in their respective hells.
I felt like Rashmoni Patra, the MA BEd aspirant — violated, sick. And I wasn’t alone. Many who witnessed the tragedy first-hand or on TV wept.
Where does the buck stop for Rashmoni, waiting on a pavement in central Kolkata for 1,000 days?
Having worked in television for 30 years, I tend to think in pictures. So, the picture that immediately popped into my mind when I asked myself that question was this: a pink mountain. Pink 2000-rupee notes piled up high on the floor of a nondescript apartment in north Kolkata, allegedly the site of many a rendezvous between a young film star and a minister who possibly celebrated his 70th birthday in jail.
The scam we must remember
Partha Chatterjee is who we are talking about, West Bengal’s erstwhile education minister who was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s right-hand man forever – until his arrest on 23 July 2022. On his way to a hospital for medical tests that day, he had frantically telephoned Banerjee and told reporters in the most ‘bhebacheka’ fashion that Didi was not responding. Bhebachaka is tough to translate into English. Let’s go with nonplussed.
At last count, including Partha Chatterjee, 28 people are in jail in connection with the alleged fraud perpetrated on lakhs of applicants for jobs in state government schools. How many jobs? Very hard to tally numbers because we are talking about Group C and Group D jobs and those of teachers, and assistant teachers. However, it is estimated that about 19 lakh people took the exam in 2016 for about 25,000 posts. A list of successful candidates was published but it was not a serial-wise merit list. Allegedly, candidates who had submitted blank answer sheets were on that list. There was also a waiting list of candidates who would fill up positions that may go vacant.
How many of you remember the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh? Perhaps not many–barring those affected. The nitty gritty was complex, as they are in the SSC scam. The Calcutta High Court order of 22 April cuts through much of it to get to the nub.
It’s a 282-page order and scathing, based on CBI investigations that seem to point to the involvement of the education board, the school service commission, private organisations in charge of evaluating Optical Mark Reading (OMR) answer sheets, and even the cabinet, which, after realising that undeserving people had fraudulently made it to the list of qualifying candidates, did not address that problem, and instead tried to paper over the situation by creating supernumerary posts or additional vacancies for candidates who would have made it had there been no fraud.
Also read: RTI, cheating, forgery — HC probe details 609 ‘illegal’ recruitments of staff in Bengal schools
Victims’ long wait for justice
The judgment has not brought any relief to Rashmoni Patra and thousands of others waiting for justice. For the 25,753 people appointed as teachers and non-teaching school staff as per the results of the 2016 exam, the court order is grim tidings. The court order says all their appointments are now null and void. Worse, as lawyers interpret the order, there are growing fears that all or some of them will have to return their salaries to the state with 12 per cent interest in 4 weeks.
Thunder has fallen on their heads, as Bengalis say—Mathaye baaj. I don’t know if there is an equivalent in other languages. ‘Bolt from the blue’ in English is too mild. Basically, it means the end.
Alarmingly, in the last few days, victims have threatened mass suicide. They say they have housing loans, children, ailing parents, and families to take care of. They say they are suffering because of some fraudulent candidates who got the jobs as quid pro quo for bribes, which were possibly part of the pink mountain worth Rs 51 cr found in Partha Chatterjee’s friend’s apartment.
They are victims of a cruel scam that has forced the high court to order mass retrenchment, unable, as the order clearly says, to separate the grain from the chaff because of how the School Service Commission had allegedly purposefully covered its tracks. For example, in 2016, the SSC decided answer sheets would be destroyed within one year. By the time investigations began several years later into the scam, crucial evidence was lost, leaving the court with no means of separating genuine candidates from frauds.
Today, the chairman of the commission (recently appointed, the previous one is in jail) says he has submitted to court 5,300-odd names that were fraudulent as per records they have managed to salvage. But he was not willing to confirm that the balance of 20,453 candidates – a total of 25,753 minus 5,300 probable frauds) — employed based on the 2016 exam are 100 per cent deserving.
Also read: TMC should’ve steered clear of Ram Navami. Competitive communal politics do no good
CM is blaming everyone
If that wasn’t enough, there’s the sorry politics swirling around the scam and the tragedy that has befallen the thousands who have technically lost their livelihoods in one fell swoop effective Monday and the other thousands who are out on the streets demanding justice.
Mamata Banerjee is blaming everyone else: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari for snatching away the school jobs. He had boasted last week that a bombshell on Monday would send TMC reeling. After Monday’s court ruling, Banerjee is accusing Adhikari of ‘gobbling’ over 25,000 jobs. BJP’s state chief Sukanta Majumdar has promised deserving candidates all legal aid. Adhikari wants Banerjee’s resignation and arrest. In much milder terms, so are Congress and CPI-M.
Adhikari apart, also at the receiving end of Banerjee’s wrath is retired justice-turned-BJP’s Tamluk candidate Abhijit Ganguly, whose orders as a single judge had begun to unravel the SSC scam. The CPI-M is also catching some Banerjee flak for going to court on the issue.
But her loudest attack is on the Calcutta High Court and the judges. Since Monday, she has labelled them “BJP courts” and “selected-by-BJP judges”, respectively, and called the order “illegal”.
So, where does the buck stop?
For 1,138 days now, at least 5,000 people have been sitting on dharna at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi or Matangini Hazra nearby in central Kolkata, including Rashmoni Patra. What hope can they hang on to? All eyes are now on the Supreme Court where the state, SSC, Secondary Board, and a bunch of individuals are headed. But the buck is yet to stop.
Someone I respect enormously but must remain nameless said the buck stops with us, we the people. We have to elect the political leadership we truly deserve.
In election season, there could be no better answer to that question.
The author is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)