The streets outside Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake continue to throb with anger and frustration as hundreds of jobless teachers, recently ousted following a Supreme Court verdict in a SSC recruitment scam case, refuse to back down from their demand for reinstatement and senior state minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday dismissed the agitation as nothing more than “a drama” aimed at grabbing media attention.
“This is nothing other than a drama. They want to show their faces on TV,” Hakim said bluntly, accusing the protestors of using the streets to chase fame.
According to him, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already stood by the affected candidates, even holding a large meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium to express solidarity. He claims many of the unemployed teachers have accepted the state’s support and gone home, but a few are “deliberately creating chaos.”
Hakim warned that such demonstrations could backfire legally. “The matter is with the Supreme Court. If anyone can reverse the verdict, it is the court— not a street protest,” he stated.
At the heart of the unrest lies the fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision that led to the cancellation of over 26,000 school jobs in connection with the controversial SSC recruitment case. The verdict shattered the hopes of thousands who had fought long and hard to secure their teaching positions. Now, many of them have taken to the streets, with Bikash Bhavan turning into a hub of continuous demonstrations.
The protestors — many of whom were earlier seen outside the Kasba office of the education department in a similar show of defiance— have declared that their struggle will continue until their rightful jobs are restored. “We were qualified. We earned these jobs. To call our protest a drama is an insult to our pain,” one agitated teacher said.
The mayor's comments have sparked outrage among the protestors, many of whom feel betrayed. “We lost our jobs overnight despite being eligible. How dare he call this a drama? Our struggle is not for the camera. It is for survival,” a teacher lashed out.
As the standoff intensifies, the area around Bikash Bhavan remains tense, with heavy police presence and barricades. What began as a cry for justice is rapidly evolving into a broader movement— one where anger over lost jobs is now tangled with accusations of political insensitivity and public humiliation.
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