No need to discuss PM Modi’s successor: Fadnavis to Raut
Nagpur/Mumbai (PTI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday dismissed speculation about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successor, asserting that Modi would continue to lead the country for many more years.
Responding to Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut’s claim that Modi went to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on Sunday to convey the message that he is retiring, Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur, “In 2029, we will see Modi as the prime minister again.”
Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, senior RSS leader Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi said he is not aware of any talk of (PM’s) replacement.
“There is no need to search for his successor. He (Modi) is our leader and will continue,” Fadnavis said. Discussing succession while the leader is active is inappropriate in Indian culture, the CM added.
“In our culture, when the father is alive, it is inappropriate to talk about succession. That is Mughal culture. The time has not come to discuss it,” he said, referring to Raut’s claim that Modi’s successor would come from Maharashtra.
Talking to reporters on Monday, Raut claimed that the RSS wants a change in the political leadership in the country.
"He (Modi) probably went to RSS headquarters to write his retirement application in September,” Raut claimed, alluding to some leaders in the ruling dispensation retiring at 75. Modi turns 75 in September this year.
Asked about Raut's claim that RSS will select PM Modi's successor from Maharashtra, Bhaiyyaji Joshi said, "I don't have any such information.”
On Modi's visit to Dr Hedgewar Smruti Mandir in RSS headquarters, Joshi said, “Yesterday's programmes went well. We all are happy. His (Modi’s) interest in service was evident during the COVID period.
“I feel that his coming here yesterday and laying the foundation stone for Madhav Netralaya centre building has elevated the institute’s stature. Similarly, his visit as a swayamsevak (RSS volunteer) to Reshimbagh on the occasion of Sangh founder K B Hedgewar’s birth anniversary was very nice," Joshi said.
The RSS headquarters in Mahal area and Dr Hedgewar Smruti Mandir at Reshimbagh are among the hallowed institutions of the Sangh.
In his first visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur after becoming the prime minister 11 years ago, Modi on Sunday described the Sangh as the banyan tree' of India's immortal culture.
Modi became the second sitting PM to visit the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited it in 2000 during his third term as PM, an RSS official said. This is also Modi's third term in the top post.
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SC invalidates appointment of 25,753 teachers, other staff in West Bengal schools
New Delhi (PTI): In a major jolt to the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools, and termed the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict dated April 22, 2024, annulling the appointments and ordered the Trinamool Congress-led state government to initiate a fresh selection process to be concluded within three months.
"In our opinion, this is the case where the entire selection process is vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with attempts to cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair.
"The credibility and legitimacy of selection are diluted, and accordingly, we have to keep it (order of the high court) with some modifications," the CJI said while pronouncing the verdict on as many as 127 petitions pertaining to the Calcutta High Court verdict.
The CJI also said the employees whose appointments have been annulled are not needed to return their salaries and other emoluments earned so far.
It, however, made relaxation for certain disabled employees on humanitarian grounds, saying they would remain in the job.
The bench fixed pleas, including the one filed by the West Bengal government challenging the high court direction for a CBI probe, for hearing on April 4.
The detailed judgement is awaited.
On February 10, the top court reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions in the matter and said that those who got jobs wrongly may be knocked out.
The top court commenced the final hearing on December 19 last year and heard the parties on January 15, 27 and February 10 before reserving its verdict on the politically-sensitive case.
Citing irregularities such as OMR sheet tampering and rank-jumping, the high court had invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal.
On May 7 last year, the apex court stayed the high court's order over the appointments made by the state's School Service Commission (SSC).
The top court, however, permitted the CBI to continue with its probe into the matter.
The case stemmed from the alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC in which 23 lakh candidates appeared for 24,640 posts and a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued.
The apex court had termed it a "systemic fraud".
The high court instructed those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies, those recruited after the expiry of the official date, and those who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments to return all the remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent per interest.
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are among the accused being probed in the recruitment scam.
