RSS, BJP should take blame for student deaths: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday instructed the state administration to foil the 12-hour bandh called by the BJP on September 26 to protest against the killing of two youths in Islampur and in the same breath, said the BJP and RSS should take responsibility for the same.

In an exclusive interview to a vernacular television channel from Milan on Saturday afternoon, the Chief Minister said that the police have told her that the bullets that pierced their bodies were not fired by them. "The BJP and RSS had brought men from outside who had incited the students and then some of them, covering their faces, had opened fire. They (BJP, RSS) are like vultures waiting for a death and then start doing politics over it. I hate this kind of politics that the BJP does," she maintained.

She said that the BJP-RSS had created trouble at the school in a calculated manner. "The next day was Muharram and the Urdu teacher was not allowed to join while no protest was raised against the Sanskrit teacher." The outsiders ransacked the rooms of the headmaster and teachers. The chairs and benches in the classrooms were broken. The project reports submitted by the students were destroyed and bamboo sticks and iron rods were later recovered from the school premises.

The Chief Minister stated that after getting this information while she was in Frankfurt, she had instructed state Education minister Partha Chatterjee to suspend the District Inspector of School Rabindra Kumar Mondol. The DI knew that trouble could happen over the appointment of the new teachers but did not inform the Education department. "I instructed the state administration to suspend the DI. The BJP and RSS leaders who had hatched the conspiracy should be arrested and action must be taken." She further said: "I go out of Bengal once a year to talk to the investors with a hope to draw business and they take advantage of my absence and create trouble."

She also added: "The BJP and the RSS have to answer why the two students were killed. And until they give their answer I ask my party activists to conduct peaceful meetings and rallies in their respective areas without fighting over the issue."

She also wondered as to how could the students oppose the appointment of the Urdu teacher. "The students have no role to play in the appointment of teachers. How could they decide which teacher should be appointed. It was a calculated move. The students were organised and incited by the BJP and RSS."

"We had provided an Urdu teacher because the school had made a requisition. It's not the decision of the government but the decision of the school committee or the school governing body."

Questioning the rationale behind the protest against the appointment of Urdu teachers, Banerjee alleged that the BJP was trying to create a communal disturbance in the state.

The Chief Minister urged students to concentrate on their studies rather than get swayed. She also expressed her condolences to the family members of those two youth who were killed in the unfortunate incident.