By Manas Paul
Mar 31, 2017: Call it a total lack of political wisdom or farsightedness or simply a pathetic bureaucratic bungling- the way Tripura government in the wake of Justice B K Sharma’s verdict in the Tripura High Court pressed the 10, 323 teachers case to the Division Bench of the same High Court and then again to the Supreme Court- was from the beginning undeniably indicative of a misplaced yet abrasive intransigence – unbecoming of a settled, safe and experienced politico-administrative system.
Now, when the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the Tripura High Court’s Division Bench headed by the then Chief Justice Deepak Gupta confirming the termination of the teachers, the state government had been put on the dock. By any standard the Left Front government which had been in power since 1978 (with full might since1979 ) except for the five years of wholly chaotic interregnum in between 1988-93 did not face such a humiliation before, that too keeping in mind several other High Court orders that went against the government’s decisions in the recent past. The entire episode speaks volumes of pathetically imprudent a step on the part of the government-especially of its legal and administrative functionaries and advisors—the then advocate general, law secretary, principal secretary to education department, chief secretary –all included.
Despite risking the chance of being a bit harsh, one would tend to find that the decision to press the case in High Court Division Bench against Justice B K Sharma’s ruling was absolutely foolish a step. Justice Sharma’s ruling was in all intents and purpose simple and reasonable —the interest of the petitioners-a small number of job aspirants who felt deprived at the way selection was done despite having required qualifications, merit, need etc-should be looked into by the government by setting up an administrative mechanism. This was relatively easy and less costly an affair—both money wise and politically as well.
But as it appears government guided by careless adamancy was stuck to its penny wise, pound fool ways. Seemingly the culture of overbearing political control in all the spheres of life for over the decades had inculcated in the political executives and the ruling party a self destructive confidence and perceived sense of invincibility.
The decision itself to knock the High Court Division bench was definitely foolish because, at the first hand the entire selection process was conducted in a shoddy manner blatantly ignoring the established guidelines that had already come into force in the state. How the government –both the political and administrative executives- could ever think that the selection process which was in clear and straight violation of established rules would be missed by the High Court Division Bench, or for that matter, later by the Supreme Court, was beyond any understanding. The question of political indulgence or nepotism in selecting individual candidate for the teacher’s job which in a sense would be difficult to prove, except making some picked up cases for newspaper headlines- would come secondary.
It was quite expected that the Supreme Court verdict that came on a cloudy and depressive Wednesday would be pregnant in essence with all the political elements and ingredients to give birth to a serious controversy and leave the baby on the lap of the political opponents to nurture it for political benefit. And the Opposition which had, of late, been hyperactive, indeed did not miss the chance and the time to pick up the issue and go up in arms demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation and CBI enquiry into the suspected scams involved in the entire teachers’ selection process. The Apex Court order had given the opposition, especially the BJP, a shot in the arms and the party had within hours of Supreme Court ruling already announced that it would take up the issue at national level and hit the streets soon. The idea to make it a national issue was evidently, planned to contribute to BJP’s strategy to discredit the Tripura government, especially to dent the image of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar as a clean politician. There should be no reason to believe that BJP would not succeed in its strategy going by its well oiled political infrastructure and recent developments all over the country.
What, however, most unsettling was the fact that the terminated teachers now faced a wholly uncertain future. Supreme Court asked the state government to initiate a fresh recruitment drive by May 31 and complete it by December 31—the last day of the terminated teachers’ job. But then, since the government would have to follow the teachers’ recruitment guidelines –a large section of the dismissed teachers would not be able to sit for the test for lack of required qualification, marks etc.
While people of the state at large had shown sympathy for the dismissed teachers and expressed worry about their future, the government or for that matter the ruling party’s ‘compassion’ ground would not hold much water. It was the same Left Front run government which mercilessly grinded axe on 387 employees of the Agartala Municipal Council who had been appointed by Congress-TUJS coalition government without required financial concurrence, and definitely on political considerations. Those retrenched employees had staged dharna at RMS choumuhani for months and months together, off and on meeting the ministers and all the powerfuls requesting them to look into their case sympathetically.. Many of them in the meantime had also got married and took housing loans etc. All requests and agitations fell in deaf ear. They had been also facing the same uncertainty what the dismissed teachers were now facing. But the government did not listen and the dismissed employees ultimately melted in the millions as faceless people. There would be no denying to the fact that the employees were given jobs on political consideration but then had the state government been sympathetic, some administrative arrangements for the financial concurrence might have not been so difficult a task. But the government acted ruthlessly by the book – no compassion, no consideration because the job was given by a government ran by the rival parties. This time it came full circle and one would agree that what happened this time under the direct supervision of the same Left Front government in the name of selection was not exactly very fair or legally acceptable. It was of larger number –10, 323 and worse than those 387 AMC ( retrenched) employees.
The Education Minister Tapan Chakrabarty, this time, might have said that the government would stand by the dismissed teachers but how the government could do it was not, yet, clear. May be some sort of stop gap arrangements like formation of ‘special teaching officers’ etc with a lump sum monthly consolidated payment would be planned for terminated teachers—but then it would not be enough to either bail out teachers from their pathetic predicament—present and future – or rescue the government’s loss of face which was akin to a fatal flaw, as any student of Classics would find –a making of its own, forgetting, and at the face of it, conveniently, the maxim : governance is all about justice.
(Published in Tripura Times/ 31.3.17)
