Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam is the theme for Saraswati Puja for this Kolkata pandal – India Today

The pandals are the brainchild of Biswajit Sarkar, elder brother of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar, who was allegedly killed in the post-poll violence in Bengal in 2021. 

One of the idols of Goddess Saraswati is sitting on a scale of a weighing equipment with a mountain of money heaped on the other scale with the clay statues of Bengal’s former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee standing behind.

By Rajesh Saha: A pandal committee in North Kolkata’s Kankurgachi area has made the teachers’ recruitment scam as its theme for this year’s Saraswati Puja, which will be celebrated on Thursday, January 26.

The pandal has three idols of Goddess Saraswati. One is the main idol which will be worshipped during the festival.

Another idol of Goddess Saraswati is sitting on a scale of weighing equipment with a pile of cash heaped on the other scale. Standing beside them are the clay statues of Bengal’s former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee standing behind–indicating the huge amount of cash that the Enforcement Directorate recovered from the residences of the TMC leader.

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The third idol of Goddess Saraswati has been placed in a cage with another cage filled with advertisements of tutors claiming to teach English and Bengali to interested candidates in a span of 50 days–indirectly hinting at the teachers’ recruitment scam where aspirants were given jobs in lieu of huge sums of money paid to ministers. Members of the pandal committee said, “Goddess Saraswati is imprisoned due to the corruption prevalent in the field of education in Bengal.”

Besides the cage, a stage has been created with clay statues of people representing the agitating job seekers who have been staging protests on the roads of Kolkata against the alleged scam and seeking jobs based on their merit.

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The idea of having Bengal’s teachers’ recruitment scam as the theme for this year’s Saraswati Puja at the Kankurgachi pandal is that of Biswajit Sarkar, the elder brother of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar, who was allegedly killed in the post-poll violence in Bengal in 2021.

The committee members credited renowned artist Jayanta Barua for bringing their idea to life.

Biswajit Sarkar told India Today, “Education in West Bengal is sold out for money. The teachers’ recruitment scam is the biggest scam in our state so far. Deserving candidates are not getting jobs but supporters of the ruling party are getting employed in an illegal way. We have decided to register our protest against this huge scam by having it as the theme for this year’s Saraswati Puja”