Maa Mati Manush’s government forgets humanity
Crackdown on TET qualifiers in Kolkata
Impose Section-144 to disperse
Drag, pull, thrash protesters, females were not spared.

Social media is abuzz with comments, reactions condemning the brutality by Mamata Banerjee’s police on the the qualified Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) people staging a peaceful ‘dharna’ at Kurnamoyee, Salt Lake in Kolkata. The protesters who were refused to move away from their venue inspite of frequent miking asking to disperse were taken by surprise to find a large pose of police carrying a crack down operation in the late hours. The police used force to remove the agitators and while doing so many people received injuries. Even girls, and women protesters were not spared. Many fainted, few collapsed. According to officials, they had requested the protesters umpteen times to disperse but the agitators were arrogant and refused to move away.

In order to disperse the protesters, Kolkata Police moved Calcutta High Court and took the order to impose Section-144. The administration still failed to remove the protesters who had divided themselves in small groups to flout the Section-144.

The broader picture is Mamata Banerjee has ruined the education and the system of education completely in the state. From introducing her own poems by replacing the traditional ‘Sahaj Path’ (Rabindranath Tagore) to becoming Alumni of reputed convent college without studying there. Past few years, the educational institutes in the state are coping with the forcefully ‘infused’ political union or union culture as many colleges were forced to have unions of Trinamool. In the bargain, a handful of vested interests are running the show that also includes persuasion of students to accept and enroll with projects like ‘Kamyashree’ etc. Politics infused inside the colleges that had always refused to introduce unions has ruined the culture of education completely.

The problem is people like Mamata Banerjee are often heard self praising their own achievement of sitting on ‘dharna’ or carrying out protests but find it very hard to eschew when others do the same thing. Banerjee is regarded as a rebellion leader but when it came to qualified TET teachers sitting on ‘dharna’ demanding a job, it was hard for her to eschew. Also, no political party has ever succeeded by crushing student’s agitations.Down memory lane, we saw how then Prime Minister VP Singh had to apologize over the national television for ignoring and taking the then Mandal Commission agitation lightly. However, by the time Singh woke up, and decided to address the students on national television, it turned out to be too late as by then entire agitation was hijacked by other political parties.