Senior lawyer and CPM’s Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya has been busy — fighting legal battles and crisscrossing Bengal to address poll rallies. The Trinamool Congress is blaming him for the loss of jobs triggered by his legal battle to expose “irregularities” in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in Bengal schools. The attack on him sharpened after Calcutta High Court in April cancelled over 25,700 recruitments for government-aided schools made through the 2016 state-level selection test.
The Telegraph spoke to Bhattacharya on issues ranging from the courtroom to the political arena. Excerpts:
n As a lawyer and a CPM MP, how do you react to Mamata Banerjee’s “chakri kheko (job eater)” jibe and the chief minister holding you responsible for nearly 26,000 youths losing their jobs (the Supreme Court has since ordered a stay on the Calcutta High Court ruling given in April)?
This is what I call manufacturing lies. The fight against the SSC scam is rooted in my principled opposition to corruption and not in my ideological dislike for Mamata.
We had moved court with available records and documents. Not just Calcutta High Court, the matter even went to the Supreme Court.
The apex court did give an interim stay and asked the aggrieved parties to approach the high court. The division bench constituted by the Chief Justice (of Calcutta High Court) heard the matter. The matter was heard for a prolonged period before the bench came up with its well-drafted judgment.
During the course of the argument, the bench sought suggestions about the kind of relief that could be provided. One, we suggested that the panel should be set aside and a fresh panel drawn up. Second, the OMR sheets could become the basis for drawing up a list to distinguish between those who got their jobs in a fair manner and those who indulged in malpractices. But that wasn’t possible because the OMRs are under question. Trinamool is quoting my submission and trying to paint me adversely. But my arguments are based on law.
n A section of those who have lost their jobs see you as a villain. Don’t you think the verdict, the political attack on you and the situation arising out of the judgment will adversely affect an already battered Left in the polls?
Targeting the Left, particularly the CPM, is precisely their intention. But the reality on the ground is different. People are thinking that because the CPM and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya are fighting against Mamata’s corruption, they are attacked. For example, after the verdict, I got a message from a schoolteacher saying she did not trust this corrupt government. She urged me to find a way out of the crisis. This is something positive. In Asansol, at the end of a poll rally, the father of a girl who has lost her job made a similar appeal and pledged his support for our fight to expose this scam.
n There is talk that 22,000 persons who lost their jobs got it in a fair manner. Why should they suffer for the tainted thousands?
Suddenly they (the state government and the School Service Commission) have come up with this 22,000 figure. They are being used as pawns. If these 22,000 appointments are genuine, what has stopped the authorities from filing an affidavit before the court stating that individuals with such and such roll numbers are eligible and appointed in a fair manner?
n The BJP is also a party in the case. Isn’t this helping the TMC tell the people that the CPM and BJP are together in “taking away jobs”?
These are absolutely foolish constructs. As a lawyer, my job is to argue a case and not look at the political identity of the aggrieved. The issue dealt with is corruption and it’s bereft of any political identity.
n Trinamool talks about irregularities during the Left Front regime, but how is this case different?
I am not a fool to claim that mistakes did not happen in the past. During the Left Front regime, there had been several errors that the courts did question. The court did ask the government to rectify the mistakes. But never did this question arise that the mistake had been made deliberately to achieve a corrupt monetary objective. The SSC scam is plain corruption. Do not forget that crores were found in the house of a Trinamool minister’s friend.
n What prompted the court to take such a harsh step?
We placed bundles of evidence before the court. Remember, Mamata told a group of agitating job seekers before the 2019 polls that she had told Partha-da (Partha Chatterjee) to form a special committee to ensure their appointment. Partha constituted the special committee with S.P. Sinha (former SSC chief now in jail) at the helm. The court’s order did not fall from the sky. It evolved through our arguments, available evidence and investigation.
n Your legal activism and politics are inseparable. Will it help the CPM’s revival?
That is how people perceive it now. Wherever I go, people say you have shown a way against corruption and it has become one of the pillars of CPM’s effort at resurgence. When Saradha and Narada happened, I did not get the feedback I am getting now... People are reacting to the school scam because education is sacrosanct for them.
n But will the BJP benefit or the Left gain?
I don’t see a BJP gain. If the Left tries, it will be able to convince the people about its battle against corruption. The Trinamool is helping the Left cause by singling me out for attacks.
n Finally, in this entire SSC saga former judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay played a pivotal role. His joining the
BJP was a personal setback for you?
Definitely not a personal setback but I was very unhappy.
