Anuj Kumar
This time, the “limbs of the government”, said a government school teacher in Barhaliyaganj, are working against the BJP. “Everybody wants the old pension scheme to be restored but this government didn’t budge,” he said, refusing to be named, on the sidelines of the Akhilesh Yadav rally in Azamgarh on Saturday.
Since Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has announced the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme as a poll plank in 2022, ‘Vote of OPS’, the slogan of primary and secondary education teachers in the State, has meant ‘Vote for SP’ in the U.P. election. The BJP leadership maintained that the OPS would cause an unnecessary financial burden on the government and instead the government would focus on creating new jobs.
“We are bound by service rules. We don’t support any particular party but none can stop us from voting to secure our future,” said Yogendra Singh, an English teacher in Manohar Bhushan Inter College, Bareilly. who is coordinating the demand in the court, on the ground and, of course, social media.
Inspired by the success of farmers’ agitation, after the Rajasthan government decided to restore OPS, “our excitement has doubled,” he said.
The numbers are not insignificant. Mr. Singh said up to 20 lakh people were affected by the New Pension Scheme. “On the basis of five votes per household around one crore have been mobilised in favour of OPS. It roughly amounts to 6,000-7,000 votes per constituency. Whichever party comes to power, it can’t afford to ignore this number.”
Introduced by the State government in April 2005, under the NPS, the pension depends on the corpus saved by the employee during service and is subject to rise and fall in investment value.
In the Old Pension Scheme, if an employee had completed 20 years of service he used to get 50% of the salary at the time of retirement, plus other benefits. “Earlier, if your last drawn salary was ₹80,000, it was clear that you will get at least ₹40,000 as pension per month. Now, it is much less,” he claimed. “Any fluctuation in the stock market impacts our returns. We are simple people.,We don’t understand the market and many teachers feel it is against their ethics,” said Mr. Singh.
Reiterating that the consolidation is across party lines and beyond the pale of caste and religion, Mr. Singh said he used to be a hardcore BJP voter. “I even held a post in the local unit but this is a matter of rozi roti [livelihood]. The pandemic has helped to strengthen this unity further. At least 95% of us will vote for OPS,” he said.
Many teachers who didn’t want to be named hoped the BJP would change its stand before elections. “But when after the review meeting on January 28, the party decided to stick to its stand, we decided to move on,” said a government teacher from Aligarh.
On the recent developments where the Central government has given hints to revive the OPS for its employees, Mr. Singh said it seemed like “a last-minute distraction”. “Even the Bahujan Samaj Party is offering OPS now,” he said.
Mr. Singh said it was not just teachers, even police officers and revenue officials called them in solidarity. That is why, he said, there could not be any mass rigging with postal ballots. “Our officers are in the same boat.”
Then there is another set of voters disillusioned with the BJP.
Om Prakash, a postgraduate who cleared the UP Teaching Eligibility Test in 2011, is still waiting for the appointment. “The SP government had brought an advertisement in 2013 that said B.Ed and TET were enough for a government teaching job in primary schools. After the first counselling, the case went to the Allahabad High Court. By the time the court judgment came, the BJP government had come to power on the promise that they would complete the process. But they kept us waiting and when we protested, we were lathi-charged,” said Mr. Yadav.
According to the B.Ed-TET 2011 Unemployed Union, there are around 1.5 lakh persons like Mr. Yadav who are making their ends meet by teaching in private schools at poor salaries. The members of the Union are turning up in large numbers in Mr. Yadav’s rallies, sporting white caps and the SP chief addresses their concerns in almost every speech. “It gives us hope. I earn ₹3,000 a month and try to fulfill the needs of the family by taking private tuition,” said Mr. Yadav.
Then there are shiksha mitras like Praveen Sharma from Meerut who claims to have suffered the most at the hands of the BJP government. They were included as assistant teachers during the SP rule, leading to a quantum jump in their salaries but when the BJP came to power, “we were robbed of our new status in society,” said Mr. Sharma.
“Many of us who took loans to build houses and are struggling now to even give a decent education to our kids,” said Mr. Sharma, reminding there are at least 1.5 lakh people like him in the State.
Countering the narrative, Ajeet Singh, member of the UP Secondary Education Commission and senior leader of the BJP from West UP, said the party was known to take a tough stand in the interest of the people.
“Tough measures like demonetisation and GST have not affected our electoral performance. The OPS will cause a heavy financial burden on the exchequer. It would be prudent to generate more jobs for the youth,” he said.
On the demands of the Shiksha Mitra, Mr. Singh said it was indeed an emotional issue but the change in their status was reversed by the SC. “The BJP government followed the court verdict and the Shiksha Mitras have been allowed opportunities and relaxations to clear the test and some of them have got the job after clearing the TET,” he said.
