West Bengal: After Chatterjee's Arrest in Corruption Case, CPIM Calls for Boycott of State-level Awards

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sujan Chakraborty has appealed to people to boycott the Banga Bhushan and Banga Bibhushan awards ceremony. He has requested prominent people like Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and theatre personality Devashankar Haldar to speak for the agitating job seekers.

The industries minister and former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday morning in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs scam. Job aspirants who staged a sit-in at Dharmatala for 496 days have demanded that all those involved in SSC recruitment corruption be arrested.

In this context, Chakraborty has called for the boycott of Banga Bhushan and Banga Bibhushan awards from this dharna. He said, “The corruption in the recruitment of teachers in our state has already earned the shameful title of one of the biggest political and administrative conspiracies of independent India. At this time, my humble request to you as a Leftist fellow citizen is to boycott this year's Banga Bhushan and Banga Bibhushan award ceremony organized by the state government at Nazrul Manch on July 25.”

“Let our hearts go out to those thousands of unemployed youths of our state who have been victims of this scam, carried out by the ruling dispensation. They have been toiling for justice over the last few years. I appeal to you to stand in solidarity with these victims, who for all these years have been ardent followers and fans of your creativity. They have seen you as an icon so far. May they get to see their icons stand in solidarity with them, in their hour of struggle,” Sujan added.

Chakraborty also said that the future will remember that when a dictatorial government brought down the people, the intellectuals of Bengal stood by the people and not the government. “The history of Bengal will remember your role,” he said.

A job seeker, who participated in the dharna, said, “The arrests are happening, but we want the recruitment immediately. We have been on the road for 496 days. Our agitation will not stop until we are appointed.”