Party state secretary K. Balakrishnan asked the people of the state not to pay heed to BJP’s stand on the issue
State Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) K. Balakrishnan reaffirmed the party’s solidarity with the management and staff of the school, where a Class XII girl who died by suicide recently, called him up on Friday to study.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, he said that the school management and staff have dedicated their lives for providing education to the poor and downtrodden for more than 150 years and thousands of children have been enlightened by their service.
As the politicization of the girl’s death by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had put immense stress on the teaching and non-teaching faculty, they expressed apprehension that it could prevent children of the area from getting quality education.
Mr Balakrishnan claimed that by raising the issue at the national level, the BJP had angered the school authorities, who feared that their image might be tarnished across the country. Some of them even went to the extent of deciding to end the educational service provided to the poor and downtrodden. “If this happens, who can provide the much needed education to the children,” he lamented.
Calling upon the people of Tamil Nadu not to pay heed to the BJP on the issue, he urged the Tamil Nadu government to ensure a fair investigation into the cause of the girl’s death. They demanded that information like step-motherly treatment of the deceased girl by her family members should also be probed.
Condemning the BJP’s national leadership for setting up a committee to probe the matter and presenting a report, he sought to compare the BJP inquiry committee with fact-finding teams set up by human rights organizations to probe incidents of human rights violations. refused.
“Human rights activists will approach issues without a predetermined mindset. Here the BJP had already announced that the girl had ended her life due to conversion.
Irrespective of the situation, the power to investigate any crime or incident rests with the state government, he said and added that the central government or the ruling party at the Center should not poke its nose in the exclusive domain of the states.
Expressing displeasure over the arrest of the 62-year-old warden in this case, he said that no person needs to be arrested just because a complaint has been filed against him.
Mr. Balakrishnan asked the Tamil Nadu government to meet BJP state president K. Annamalai for creating communal tension, which will harm social harmony in Tamil Nadu.
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