Call for Citizens’ March Against Corruption in West Bengal

Kolkata: Prominent intellectuals from the state on Sunday held a press conference to speak about the teacher recruitment scam, holding the incumbent Trinamool Congress government for “institutionalising corruption”.

Those who were present at the conference at the Press Club included advocate and MP Bikashranjan Bhattacharya, film director Anik Dutta, internationally acclaimed linguist Pabitra Sarkar, and actors Chandan Sen and Rahul Arunadoy Banerjee.

They also gave a call for a citizens’ march from Victoria House in Esplanade to the Gandhi statue premises on the Red Road on August 1 to give voice to their set of demands.  

Speaking at the press conference Bikashranjan Bhattacharya said, “Right after 2011, in every appointment to the state government posts – be it in education or to fire services or in other government posts – there has been corruption. [...] Firstly, the Public Service Commission was constituted by including the TMC party workers. The Kolkata High Court had stopped all the appointments in regard to the Commission. But the government approached the Supreme Court and got an ex-parte order regarding that.”

Bhattacharya said that his team of lawyers had approached the court, arguing that without monitoring by the court, the case will be delayed just like the Narada case. He alleged that for the Narada case, the chief minister had “entered an understanding with PM Modi”.

“In the high court, the government has argued many times that whatever corruption has occurred, let bygones be bygones; we will give jobs to the aspirants. We have contested this vehemently in the court of law,” added Bhattacharya.

“In the case of interviews too, there were many irregularities and a huge amount of money has been unearthed. This is only the tip of the iceberg. West Bengal is the state to which Vidyasagar and Rammohan belonged and education was fairer and just. But now, that pride has gone to the dust,” he said.

Pabitra Sarkar called the condition “pathetic” and demanded that there be a change in the governance. “This corruption-laden governance needs to bite the dust,” he opined.

“This is also not only a question of giving jobs to job aspirants, but it is the larger question of corruption whereby the chief minister had wrongly stated that the law is coming in the way of job creation in the education system in the state,” added Sarkar.

Anik Dutta, while speaking to NewsClick, said: “It has to be a civilian protest throughout the state to unearth the money A game is going on in the state and these people are so inferior that no logical debate can be had with them.”

West Bengal Left Front committee has extended its support to the citizens’ vigil rally to be held on August 1 and has urged the citizens to participate and vocalise their dissent.