The Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal government has asked 125 schools to shut down over the allegation that they were run by the RSS. The notice issued in this regard was announced by state education minister Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday.
As per Chatterjee, the state government won’t allow schools to teach violence to students and also claimed that the 125 schools which were ordered shut, don’t have the necessary clearances from the education department. In another attack he stated that “wielding sticks” cannot be taught in the schools. He further claimed that complaints had been received against about 500 schools out of which 493 were under investigation.
The notice sent to the Vivekananda Vidyavikas Parishad which runs 12 such RSS schools, has been challenged by the society in the Calcutta High Court. As per its organising secretary Tarak Das Sarkar, they had applied for clearances back in 2012 which till date haven’t been provided.
The society which dates back to 1975 hadn’t run into any government trouble till 2012 after which the government amended laws to make it mandatory for all schools to get a NOC from the educational department. Even though Partha Chatterjee took potshots at the nature of content in these schools, as per Sarkar the dispute has arisen due to infrastructure deficiencies like fire safety.
Besides this, the RSS has now come out to claim that they have no involvement in these schools’ functioning and asked the Mamata government to pay attention to Madrasas and their education content.
The RSS’s South Bengal secretary Jisnu Basu too commented on this matter by claiming that schools which the Mamata government is trying to close, is providing a hygienic atmosphere and good education to kids. He as a result implored Partha Chatterjee to improve the conditions of primary schools in the state.
A similar news was reported in April, 2017 about the Mamata government planning on imposing heavy fines on schools allegedly running without NOCs and majority of the schools in question were considered close to the RSS.
Ironically the Mamata government in 2011 had also announced a plan to regularise 10,000 madrasas in the state, regardless of the fact that they follow no formal education pattern and have been a hotbed of violent activities which include imparting training to make bombs.
The Mamata government’s supposed disdain for everything “right” was also noted recently when a saffron coloured school was in trouble for not switching over to Mamata’s favourite blue and white colour scheme.
