West Bengal Violence: The students of a school in Islampur were protesting since September 18 (File)
The Trinamool Congress on Thursday blamed the RSS and BJP for the clash between students and the police in Islampur district of West Bengal. The ruling party also vowed to strongly oppose the shutdown called by the BJP against the violence.
A youth died in the violence and at least a dozen others got injured, including police personnel.
The BJP had called a twelve-hour shutdown in North Dinajpur district today.
The students of a higher secondary school in Islampur, about 500 km north of Kolkata, had been protesting since September 18, demanding appointment of teachers for various subjects like mathematics, science and the humanities. They had blocked road to press for their demand.
Their protest had been triggered by the appointments of teachers for languages.
Another school also held protest on the same issue on September 19.
In a late-night press meet in Kolkata yesterday, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee announced he had suspended the district inspector for schools for unilaterally appointing the language teachers.
He also sought a report from the North Dinajpur district administration, asking why it did not inform the top brass in Kolkata about trouble brewing for the last three days on the issue.
While the TMC blamed the RSS for the violence, the CPM slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"Mamata Banerjee will use the police to loot votes, grab panchayats and open fire on students," local parliamentarian Mohammad Salim said.
"And some people are even using this incident to create a divide between Hindus and Muslims, pit one neighbourhood against another. We have to understand that these forces are all the same," he said.
"There were schools, students and teachers earlier also. But in the current situation, some forces are using students and teachers to further politics of communalism and divisiveness. This kind of politics is going on in our country and in our state," he added.
Dismissing the lawmaker's charge, Mr Chatterjee said they were sure of the RSS role in the incident. "We are certain of the RSS role in the incident. They got people from outside. They caused the death as they want to do the politics of death. We condemn the politics of death practiced by the RSS and BJP, and we shall continue our protest against it," he said.