Mamata event main show in Bengal, not Modi’s speech

The West Bengal government has made it clear that schools in the state do not have to make arrangements to telecast Prime Minister Narandra Modi’s address to students on Teachers’ Day.

Instead, teachers and students would have to participate in the announced state event that day. “We have already made it clear that the state government would go ahead with its own pre-declared programme on Teachers’ Day. We have not issued any directive to the schools regarding the telecast of Modi’s speech, nor do we plan to do so,” said Partha Chatterjee, the state school education minister.

While the ministry of human resource development (HRD) claimed it had a discussion with secretaries of every state regarding the telecast of Modi’s speech and all agreed to it, including West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her displeasure regarding the telecast.

The development comes against the backdrop of the CBI going ahead with its Saradha scam probe that has put several senior Trinamool Congress leaders in a soup.

However, the confusion began when the South 24 Parganas district inspector’s office of directorate of school education uploaded a notification, asking schools to make arrangements to telecast Modi’s speech.

The notification signed by the directorate of school education on August 28 was uploaded along with the HRD circular attached for reference. However, officials of the school education department hastily explained the notification was uploaded by mistake and was deleted on the same day.

While the state-run schools are not making arrangements to telecast Modi’s speech, most of the private schools in the city too are keeping it at bay.