Unemployed Teachers deserve ‘respect’, not Police battons

For the fifth consecutive day, Salt Lake's Bikash Bhavan—a building that symbolizes intellectual aspirations of West Bengal—echoed with something far more melancholic than normal: the pained screams of over a thousand school teachers, victims not of ineffectiveness, but of a failed system. They are not agitators by profession. These are the individuals who once stood in front of blackboards teaching science and grammar, driven to the streets by a Supreme Court decision that labeled their hiring process as "vitiated and tainted."

There can be no confusion that integrity in public hiring will have to reign supreme. But what if the fault is not that of the candidates, but of the system that screened and chose them? These are teachers who cleared the 2016 SSC exam—several of them have taught for years. Their sole mistake? Believing in a government process that eventually let them down.

Outside the building of the Education Department, one sees a poignant scene—a lady with tearful eyes inspects the answer scripts of her students in the midst of slogans and demonstrations. Others sweep the road, symbolically trying to wash away the corruption that cost them their jobs. It is a snapshot no democracy can be proud of.

Worse still is the response. Accusations of police brutality, injuries, and warnings issued to teachers for participating in a protest born out of sheer desperation—this is not how a welfare state responds to its teachers.

Minister Bratya Basu has yet to make an appearance. The silence is deafening.

The state government has taken up a vow of special review petition in the Supreme Court. At least in the circumstances, the least it can do is ensure that these aggrieved teachers are heard. To force them to retake the exam is to invalidate years of their life's labor—and smells of administrative insensitivity.

Justice delayed, as they say, is justice denied. In this case, however, justice does not seem merely delayed—it seems forgotten.