The State Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) K. Balakrishnan affirmed the party’s solidarity with the management and staff of the school, where a Class XII girl who died by suicide recently had studied, by calling on them on Friday.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, he said the school management and staff had dedicated their lives to providing education to the poor and downtrodden for over 150 years and thousands of children have been enlightened by their service.
As the politicisation of the girl’s death by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had caused immense stress on the teaching and non-teaching faculty, he expressed apprehensions that it could prevent children of the region from getting quality education.
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By raking up the issue at the national-level, the BJP had annoyed the school authorities, who feared that their image might get tainted all over the country, Mr. Balakrishnan claimed. Some of them had even gone to the extent of taking a decision to end the educational service they offer to the poor and downtrodden. “If that happens, who can provide a much-needed education to the children,” he regretted.
Calling upon the people of Tamil Nadu not to pay heed to the BJP on this issue, he urged the Tamil Nadu government to ensure a fair investigation into the girl’s cause of death. Information such as the step-motherly treatment meted out to the deceased girl by her family members should also be probed, he demanded.
While condemning the BJP national leadership for forming a committee to inquire into the matter and present a report, he refused to compare the BJP inquiry committee with the fact-finding teams formed by the human rights outfits to probe incidents of rights violations.
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“Human rights activists would approach the issues without a predetermined mindset. Here the BJP had already declared that the girl had ended her life due to religious conversion,” he charged.
Irrespective of the situation, the right of investigating a crime or an incident rests with the State government, he said and added that the Central government or the ruling party at the Centre should not poke its nose into the exclusive domain of the States.
Expressing his displeasure over the arrest of the 62-year-old warden in this issue, he said there was no need to arrest a person simply because a complaint was filed against him or her.
Mr. Balakrishnan urged the Tamil Nadu Government to initiate stringent action against the BJP State president, K. Annamalai for raking up communal tension, which would harm social harmony in Tamil Nadu.