Protesting Teacher Blames Education Minister in Suicide Note

In the early morning on 21 Oct, 35-year-old protester Balwinder Kaur from village Gambirpur, district Ropar, reportedly jumped into the Sirhind canal. Kaur was a member of the 1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians Front who had been protesting near the residence of Panjab Education Minister Harjot Bains since 14 Aug. In her suicide note, Kaur expressly held Bains responsible. After close to 20 years in which no recruitment took place, in October 2021 the then Congress government started a recruitment process for professors and librarians. In December 2021, 607 of them were given appointment letters. While 124 of them joined their duties, the remaining 483 – who had resigned from their jobs at mostly government schools and private or aided colleges – were not allowed to join owing to a large number of petitions against the recruitment drive. Last year, the Panjab and Haryana High Court quashed the recruitment. The state government has challenged the court decision. Upon Kaur’s suicide, when opposition demanded a solution to the issue, the AAP government called them an ‘entire vulture kingdom’ who were ‘shamelessly propagating false narratives.’ The police First Information Report mentions Kaur’s husband but not the minister – named in the suicide report – as responsible for the suicide. Ironically, on the same day as the suicide, the AAP government came out with a Panjab Influencer Empowerment Policy, 2023, aimed at recruiting social media influencers to ‘to narrate rich stories of Panjab's culture, heritage, and governance initiatives to audiences across India.’ The policy promises huge cash incentives.