A day after Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar advised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not to push the students in political quagmire over the conducting of JEE/NEET exams the ruling, Trinamool Congress attacked him for running a BJP party office from the Raj Bhavan.
“It seems that the Governor has no inkling of Bengal’s culture, and its geo-political history which is why he is making such bizarre statements… Bengal has always raised its voice when the country has faced any problem.
“Our Chief Minister has raised this issue not only in the interest of the students of Bengal but for the 25 lakh students of the entire country who are being thrown into the mouth of a pandemic for no fault of theirs… She wants to save their lives and not harm their career,” Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim said.
The Central Government had made it a point of ego to hold the exams now in September putting the lives of lakhs of students in danger, he said adding “they have no sensitivity towards their plights, they only serve the interests of the rich industrialists and not the common people including the students … it is foolish that they did not hold the exams when the rate of infection was comparatively far lower in the month of May … and now when the infection is going up they are pushing the young children in the mouth of pandemic.”
Replying to the Governor’s terse remarks he said “here is a person who calls himself a constitutional head but acts as if he is the member of the BJP converting his official residence into a BJP party office.”
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s initiative to postpone the all-India exams in the face of corona pandemic Dhankhar had on Saturday wondered as to why the Chief Minister was pushing the students into in political mire.
“Why thoughtlessly make it political hot potato! Student welfare is the top priority. Why not read Supreme Court judgment, its rationale and follow directives!” he tweeted.
“'Don't prey on students for sake of politicking', " he said adding, "Students are our future. Its matter of global competitiveness. It cannot be in political whirlpool. Silent majority of students do not seek to risk their prospects and capsize their future.
Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to up the ante against the Trinamool Congress keeping in view the next year’s State elections, the BJP on Sunday announced a series of programmes to highlight the State Government’s failures in all front.
The programmes would culminate into a “march to Nabanna (State secretariat),” said party MP Soumitra Khan. “The party Yuva Morcha (youth wing) will raise issues like lack of employment, irregularities in providing jobs to the aspirants in Teachers’ Eligibility Test, SSC exams etc apart from rampant corruption, falling law and order problems and hold state wide programme which will finally culminate into a Nabanna march in a months’ time,” he said.
