Candidates protesting the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam at the Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata resorted to a unique protest on the occasion of Kali Puja on Monday.
One of the female agitators, dressed as the goddess Kali, who is considered to be the destroyer of evil forces in Hindu mythology, came to the protest site, and other protesters bowed to her, praying for the punishment of the fraudsters.
The participant of the action, pretending to be the goddess Kali, kept her mouth shut, carrying a fake katar (sword) in her hand. On the other hand, instead of replicas of replicas of a human skull, she carried photographs of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and former West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) president Manik Bhattacharya.
While Chatterjee is currently in judicial custody, Bhattacharya is in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam.
On Monday, when the protesters were staging such a unique protest, CPI-M Politburo Member and West Bengal State Secretary of the party Mohammad Salim along with some of his associates reached the protest site and expressed solidarity with them.
“All eligible candidates who have been deprived of appointment letters to make way for unsuitable candidates against monetary terms should be appointed immediately. Those who are not eligible and who have got employment by paying money even after submitting blank letters for OCR should be immediately suspended from their services. Persons in the system who resorted to such corruption should be punished for their crimes,” Salim said.
Protesters who had been canvassing outside WBBPE’s Salt Lake office against a hiring scam were forcibly removed from the area in a surprise police crackdown late Thursday night. This event drew strong criticism not only from opposition political parties, but also from intellectuals, celebrities and civil society.
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