AAP counters claims over migrant teachers

AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the claim was “false and misleading”, and accused the BJP of doing politics over the issue.

The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday hit out at claims by an association of Kasmiri Pandit teachers that the party’s government in Delhi opposed the regularisation of their jobs even as the body issued a clarification during the day that the unsigned letter issued in its name was fake.

Addressing a press conference on the premises of the Delhi assembly on Tuesday, AAP MLA Atishi said the AAP government supported the regularisation of Kashmiri Pandit teachers, but the services department that comes under the lieutenant governor objected to it.

AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the claim was “false and misleading”, and accused the BJP of doing politics over the issue.

On Monday, an unsigned press release issued on a letterhead of ‘Government School Teachers Association (Migrant)’ said the Delhi government had regularised teachers because it was left with no choice after the Supreme Court’s judgment in the matter and added that the Delhi government opposed the regularisation of their jobs.

Addressing a press conference on the premises of the Delhi assembly on Tuesday, AAP MLA Atishi said the AAP government supported the regularisation of Kashmiri Pandit teachers, but the services department that comes under the lieutenant governor objected to it. “The government took a very clear stance and decided to regularise these teachers in the Cabinet, and informed the high court about the decision, after which the LG blatantly stated that this decision, concerning the services department, can only be taken by the LG Office and the Kejriwal government has no jurisdiction,” Atishi said.

Bharadwaj, who is AAP’s chief spokesperson, alleged that BJP “fabricated” the press release under the false name of one Dileep Bhan of Government School Teachers Association (Migrant). Bhardwaj said that the person under whose name the press release was issued did not exist and everything about the PR was fabricated.

“This is the real face of the BJP and its leaders, they are liars,” Bharadwaj said.

The AAP leaders also questioned the veracity of the teachers’ body, which issued the statement targeting Kejriwal on the issue of regularising Kashmiri migrant teachers.

The teachers’ association, which was party in the case filed in the court, issued a clarification on Tuesday, saying, Bhan whose statement is circulating in the name of their organisation is not known to them. The association also stated that the Kejriwal government always stood by Kashmiri migrant contractual teachers and even passed a policy in its Cabinet in 2017 favouring their regularisation, Atishi said.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, BJP said that AAP leaders were doing politics over Kashmiri teachers who had been given employment by erstwhile BJP government in 1994-95. The party said that both Congress and AAP governments had taken obstructive stand in courts when the demand for regularisation of teachers arose.