New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's letter to President Droupadi Murmu highlights the ongoing crisis regarding the recruitment of teachers in West Bengal. The issue stems from a Supreme Court verdict that negatively impacted over 26,000 teachers who were selected through fair means.
In his two-page letter to President Murmu, Rahul said that treating the teachers selected through fair means on par with tainted ones would be a serious injustice to them and therefore it was important to draw a distinction between the two – one selected via fair means and the tainted, selected through unfair means.
Drawing the President's attention to the crisis arising from 26,000 job losses, he urged the President to take stock of it and take some steps for 'redressal'.
“I request you to kindly consider their request favourably and urge the government to intervene in the matter to ensure that candidates selected through fair means are allowed to continue,” Cong MP wrote in the letter.
He further wrote, “Most untainted teachers have served for nearly a decade. Terminating them will force lakhs of students into classrooms without adequate teachers. The arbitrary termination will destroy their morale and deprive their families of what is often the sole source of income.”
Notably, the Supreme Court, on April 3, upheld an earlier verdict of the Calcutta High Court, leading to the invalidation of 25,752 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. These appointments were made by a recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016.
The court observed that the entire selection process of the TMC government was “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution”.
The SC verdict came as a blow to the ruling party and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee particularly in light of the fact that it comes ahead of the party’s poll preparations for the 2026 Assembly elections.
With inputs from IANS