On Wednesday, April 6, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education warned that strict penal action would be taken against those students who are found writing Mamata Banerjee’s genocidal election slogan- ‘Khela Hobe’ in their answer sheets.
The development came after examiners discovered that a section of Class 10 students who had appeared for the Madhyamik examination last month, had written ‘Khela Hobe’ – which became a war cry for Trinamool Congress goons to loot, maim, slaughter, and rape the rival BJP workers, on their answer papers. The Class 10 exams for the West Bengal board were conducted last month.
The council has warned the students appearing for the ongoing Class 12 board exams, known as the Uchcha Madhyamik examinations or as the Higher Secondary examinations for class 12 in the state, not to indulge in the same. It said that severe action would be taken against those students found writing political messages or drawings on the answer sheets.
WBCHSE President Chiranjib Bhattacharya told PTI on Wednesday that examiners have been told not to evaluate such exam papers because those who do so will face penalties.
Furthermore, he informed that a high-powered committee formed by the Council will take a decision on the quantum of the punishment.
Bhattacharya also said that writing political slogans, campaigns, or controversial issues that violate the rules and disregard the WBCHSE will invite strict action.
In response, educationist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, speaking to news agency PTI, welcomed the decision. “No ruling party should politicise the education sector and influence impressionable minds,” Bhaduri said.
‘Khela Hobe’ and the weaponisation of political violence
‘Khela Hobe’, the genocidal election slogan was coined by none other than West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee during the state elections last year. Initially, the slogan appeared as a harmless jibe against the opposition but soon started to showcase its true colours. TMC members made a wall painting in Bengal wherein Mamata Banerjee was seen hitting PM Modi’s head instead of a football. During her election rallies, the West Bengal Chief Minister continued to provoke her party workers to retaliate against the central armed forces and BJP workers. Several instances of violence were thus reported during the various stages of polling and have continued ever since.
Several BJP workers have lost their lives in the post-poll violence that ensued following the victory of the TMC party in the assembly elections.
The violence unleashed against them forced hundreds of BJP party workers and supporters to flee their villages along with their families. They crossed over to Assam where they have been provided temporary shelter under the supervision of minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It is not just the BJP but even CPI(M) which has accused the TMC of killing its workers. Reports of attacks on BSF jawans have also emerged in the media. On June 2, 2021, a month after Mamata Banerjee came back to power, the BJP said 37 of its workers were killed in the post-poll violence that convulsed the state.
There were reports that said women in West Bengal were raped, assaulted and, in some cases, even killed, just because they adhered to a different political ideology. A victim who was raped by the TMC goons in front of her father shared her harrowing ordeal with OpIndia. She narrated how she was attacked and sexually assaulted by her perpetrators associated with the TMC party.