Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar resigned from both Parliament and politics in protest against the West Bengal government’s response to the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital and the events that followed.
In a letter to Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Sircar, a former IAS officer, indicated the “unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt” in his own party.” Sircar, who became TMC Rajya Sabha member in 2021, said his primary motivation for entering politics was to combat the autocratic and communal politics of BJP and asserted that he would continue to take a stand against these tendencies.
“I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital, and was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee. It has not happened and whatever punitive steps that the government is taking now are too little and quite late,” he said in the letter.
“I think normalcy may have been restored in this state much earlier, if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed and those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened,” he added.
He urged the party to take a non-confrontational approach, stating that the protests are primarily driven by a desire for justice and punishment rather than political motives. He warned that if the party does not correct its course, “communal forces will capture this state.”
Sircar recalled that earlier also after publicly calling the party to address corruption issues he was met with resistance from senior party leaders. Though disheartened, he chose to remain in office, hoping that the party would harden its stance against corruption. However, the party continued to remain indifferent to the issue, he said in his letter.
Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, another sitting Rajya Sabha member from TMC, had also supported the citizens’ protests taking place in West Bengal demanding justice for the R G Kar victim.
