India, West Bengal: 24 thousand teachers risk their jobs due to fraud in the recruitment test

ROMA – In India, humanitarian organizations work with extreme difficulty. The government is led by a nationalist and ethnocentric party that sees the activities of foreign organizations as a smokescreen, to which the authorities in New Delhi always reserve the right not to issue entry visas.

The right and Hindu nationalism. The party in power is the BJP, a conservative and neoliberal aggregation, which has its reason for being in Hindu nationalism, based on the based on the so-called Hindutva, a concept that summarizes the idea of ​​a cultural hegemony of Hindu nationalism over the rest of the population, taking into account the fact that Hindu religion and culture concerns approximately 80% of residents in India.

The urgency of investigations into rights and corruption. Networks of humanitarian organizations persist in accusing the Indian government of preventing independent and transparent investigations into the situation regarding universal human rights, which are violated, and the correct management of public administration, which is widespreadly tainted by corruption. The response of the Indian authorities is expressed in reiterating how for centuries the Western world has introduced colonialist methods to India, imposing its own standards and commercial interests, underlining that the country still suffers from the wounds imposed by European colonialism and Christian missionaryism.

The rigged competition for teachers. Just this morning the West Bengal government – ​​we learn from Asianews – appealed to the Indian Supreme Court after the High Court of Calcutta decided to cancel the appointments of all school staff selected through a public competition in 2016. There are over 24 thousand people, including teachers and non-teachers, who risk finding themselves suddenly out of work. At the beginning of the week, in fact, the local court declared the selection process conducted in 2016 null and void, ordering the School Service Commission – the committee that deals with the recruitment of teachers – to make new hires within the next 15 days and instructing teachers to return the salary received so far within six weeks and with interest.

The irregularities reported. The West Bengal government had announced in 2014 its intention to recruit public school staff through competition. But when it took place State Level Selection Test, several candidates, after finishing the exam, reported a series of irregularities, such as, for example, people with low scores who found themselves at the top of the ranking or even candidates who had not passed the competition who then received the letter of appointment.

The heavy consequences on local administrations. According to commentators, the case risks having negative repercussions on the local administration, and in particular on the chief minister Mamata Banerjeewho has so far declared that teachers excluded from the profession due to the Court’s ruling will receive support (whether it is also economic) from the State: “We will support those who have lost their jobs”, said the leader of the Trinamool Congress, adding that the BJP, which is hoping for a victory in the current elections, has influenced the judiciary and the outcome of the sentences.