NEW DELHI: TMC MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday wrote a letter to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and expressed his intention to resign from the Rajya Sabha and quit politics altogether over Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder that sparked nationwide outrage.
Urging Mamata to do “something” to save the state, Sircar wrote, “While thanking you sincerely for giving me such a great opportunity to represent the problems of West Bengal as an MP in the Rajya Sabha, I must inform you that I have decided to resign from parliament and also from politics altogether.”
“I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital, & was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee.It has not happened & whatever punitive steps that the government is taking now are too little & quite late. I think normalcy may have been restored in this state much earlier if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed & those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened,” he added.
Jawhar Sircar, who joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2021, expressed his shock at the open evidence of corruption involving former education minister Partha Chatterjee, which was widely reported on television and in print media. Sircar stated that he had made a public statement urging the party and government to address the issue of corruption, but he was met with heckling from senior party leaders.
“But, in 2022, a year after I joined, I was quite shocked to see on TV and print the open evidence of corruption that the former education minister had indulged in. I made A public statement that corruption must be tackled by the party and government, but I was heckled by senior leaders in the party. I did not resign then as I had hoped that you would carry on your public campaign against ‘cut money’ and corruption that you had started a year earlier. Besides, everyone knows that there is no party anywhere that does not have a corrupt section. I was also persuaded by well-wishers to remain as MP in order to carry on the battle against a regime that is the greatest ever threat to Indian democracy and civil liberties,” he said.
“Though I carried on my task in parliament with fervour, I became increasingly disillusioned as the state government seemed quite unconcerned about corruption and the increasing strong-arm tactics of a section of leaders. As you know. I was the only prominent officer who was not given any plot in Salt Lake or anywhere by the previous regime – for speaking out too critically. I have grown up in a middle-class family in Kolkata and in my youth, I have travelled in suffocating public transport, hanging on to the footboards of buses. So,, after 41 years in the IAS, I can live without embarrassment in a small middle class flat, next to a big slum and drive a very ordinary 9 year old car. But I get amazed to see that several elected,” he added.
The TMC government has faced intense criticism following the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The incident led to the arrest of a Kolkata Police civic volunteer and triggered widespread demonstrations by doctors and citizens alike, demanding justice and accountability.
The Calcutta high court subsequently directed the CBI to investigate both the murder and the financial irregularities at the institution.
Urging Mamata to do “something” to save the state, Sircar wrote, “While thanking you sincerely for giving me such a great opportunity to represent the problems of West Bengal as an MP in the Rajya Sabha, I must inform you that I have decided to resign from parliament and also from politics altogether.”
“I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital, & was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee.It has not happened & whatever punitive steps that the government is taking now are too little & quite late. I think normalcy may have been restored in this state much earlier if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed & those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened,” he added.
Jawhar Sircar, who joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2021, expressed his shock at the open evidence of corruption involving former education minister Partha Chatterjee, which was widely reported on television and in print media. Sircar stated that he had made a public statement urging the party and government to address the issue of corruption, but he was met with heckling from senior party leaders.
“But, in 2022, a year after I joined, I was quite shocked to see on TV and print the open evidence of corruption that the former education minister had indulged in. I made A public statement that corruption must be tackled by the party and government, but I was heckled by senior leaders in the party. I did not resign then as I had hoped that you would carry on your public campaign against ‘cut money’ and corruption that you had started a year earlier. Besides, everyone knows that there is no party anywhere that does not have a corrupt section. I was also persuaded by well-wishers to remain as MP in order to carry on the battle against a regime that is the greatest ever threat to Indian democracy and civil liberties,” he said.
“Though I carried on my task in parliament with fervour, I became increasingly disillusioned as the state government seemed quite unconcerned about corruption and the increasing strong-arm tactics of a section of leaders. As you know. I was the only prominent officer who was not given any plot in Salt Lake or anywhere by the previous regime – for speaking out too critically. I have grown up in a middle-class family in Kolkata and in my youth, I have travelled in suffocating public transport, hanging on to the footboards of buses. So,, after 41 years in the IAS, I can live without embarrassment in a small middle class flat, next to a big slum and drive a very ordinary 9 year old car. But I get amazed to see that several elected,” he added.
The TMC government has faced intense criticism following the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The incident led to the arrest of a Kolkata Police civic volunteer and triggered widespread demonstrations by doctors and citizens alike, demanding justice and accountability.
The Calcutta high court subsequently directed the CBI to investigate both the murder and the financial irregularities at the institution.