AAP, BJP trip over each other to claim credit for regularising jobs of Kashmiri migrant teachers in Delhi

Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party have been engaged in an unseemly tussle with each other in the national capital to claim credit for the regularisation of the services of Kashmiri pandits working as teachers in Delhi.

On Monday, a Kashmiri pandit teachers’ body condemned the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government for trying to take credit for their regularisation. In a letter issued by an office-holder, Dilip Bhan, it claimed that the Delhi government had in fact tried to hamper the regularization of their service and that it was a Supreme Court ruling will helped them in this regard.

The teachers' body contended that they had approached Delhi High Court on June 6, 2010, following which a single bench ruled in their favour by regularising their services five years later in 2015.

In the timeline released by it, the association claimed that this judgement was challenged in a two-judge bench of the HC by the Delhi government. On May 21, 2018, the bench ruled in favour of the teachers.

The teachers’ body alleged that the Delhi government then moved the Supreme Court, which, however, went on to dismiss the plea, following which the services of the teachers were regularised in 2019.

“The above events clearly indicate that Delhi government was never interested in regularising the services of Kashmiri pandit teachers. In fact, Delhi government opposed the regularisation till the very end,” the statement said.

To counter this, AAP released a statement alleging that the letter was ‘fake’ and that it was the Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s office which had approached the Supreme Court.

The AAP government claimed that it was the LG which controlled the services department and had opposed the regularisation of the teachers’ services.

AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj dismissed the teachers’ association’s claims as “false and misleading” and accused the BJP of indulging in politics over the issue. “The Kashmiri teachers approached CM Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia after the AAP formed the government in 2015. Delhi government decided to regularise their services and the cabinet cleared the proposal,” claimed Atishi.

The AAP government also released a letter purportedly issued by a body called Government School Teachers’ Association (Migrant) slamming the letter issued by Dilip Bhan. It claimed that Bhan was not recognised as a member of the association and that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had in fact helped Kashmiri migrant contractual teachers.

“The High Court and Supreme Court have ruled in our favour; however, we have always got support from the elected government of Delhi under the leadership of CM Arvind Kejriwal for regularisation of Kashmiri migrant teachers,” the letter issued on Tuesday said.

Though the LG’s office maintained a studied silence, the BJP went on to claim that the AAP government was ‘creating confusion’ after facing flak for criticising a recent Bollywood movie on Kashmiri pandits.

General secretary of the Delhi unit of the BJP Harsh Malhotra accused Delhi government of doing nothing concrete for the resettlement of the Kashmiri migrants. According to a report by The Times of India, Malhotra had claimed that it was the Kejriwal government's advocate, Sidharth Luthra, who said in court that Kashmiri teachers had been given contract jobs without following the lawful process and as such they could continue only as contractual employees

Malhotra had also alleged that the Kashmiri teachers whose support AAP was counting on at the moment were given employment by the erstwhile BJP government in 1994-95. “Today, when CM Kejriwal is facing wide condemnation for calling the film on Kashmiri pandits a lie, AAP is trying to create confusion over the matter,” Malhotra reportedly said.