'I just cannot accept corrupt officers getting prime postings': Jawhar Sircar says 'Kolkata on standstill'

KOLKATA: Trinamool MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday quit politics and from the Rajya Sabha in protest against Bengal govt's handling of the RG Kar rape-murder. In a two-page letter to party chief and CM Mamata Banerjee, he said he had been "suffering patiently for a month", urging her to "do something to save the state."

Sircar differed with his party's "confrontational stand" (TMC had labelled the protests "political") and questioned why Banerjee had not spoken to the agitating junior doctors directly. He also dubbed the state's steps "as too little and quite late." Banerjee called up Sircar — who joined politics in Aug 2021 to be elected Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP — in an effort to persuade him to take back his resignation, but Sircar refused, sources said.

Sircar will leave for Delhi on Wednesday (Sept 11) and submit his resignation to vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar, the RS chairman, the following day.

"I have tried to make two points," Sircar told TOI. "Even without any central leadership, this is a popular revolt and not a mere political opposition. Kolkata has come to a literal standstill, and yet no one is complaining. My resignation is just a wake-up call for the powers that be. CM Mamata Banerjee still remains the best bet against communal forces. But unless a course correction is done, this bastion will also fall."

"The present spontaneous outpouring of public anger is against this unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt," Sircar said in his letter.

"I have not seen such angst and total no-confidence against the govt, even when it says something correct or factual. I think normalcy may have been restored in the state much earlier, if the caucus of corrupt doctors was smashed and those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened."

Sircar, arguing that the protesters want "no politics, but justice and punishment", warned in his letter, "Let us analyse frankly and realise that the movement is as much for Abhaya [the RG Kar victim] as it is against state govt and the party. This calls for course correction immediately or else communal forces will capture the state."

Can’t accept corrupt officers getting prime postings: Sircar
Sircar, a Presidency College alumnus in the troubled 1960s, told Banerjee that his commitment to fight "corruption, communalism and authoritarianism in the Centre and the state is simply non-negotiable". He wrote, "I just cannot accept some things, like corrupt officers (or doctors) getting prime and top postings.

No." He also pointed out that he — after four decades in govt jobs — did not feel embarrassed to stay in a middle-class flat next to a slum and drive a nine-year-old car; but that it "hurts him and West Bengal" that panchayat and municipal leaders are acquiring big properties and moving around in expensive vehicles.

Sircar pointed out when he joined TMC in 2021, he had spoken out against corruption after the arrest of former education minister Partha Chatterjee "but I was heckled by senior leaders in the party." He said he did not resign then because he believed in Banerjee's public statements against weeding out corruption. "There is no party anywhere which does not have a corrupt section. I was also persuaded by well-wishers to remain as MP to carry on the battle against a regime that is the greatest ever threat to Indian democracy and civil liberties," he said.

The abrupt resignation by the Presidency College alumnus may, on the face of it, appear sudden (he was defending the party till Sept 7 on his X handle). But, questioned by his friends for defending the party through the RG Kar episode, he had been telling people close to him that he would take "a decision at the right time". "For some years, my wife and son had been saying that I would be a good scholar or activist. Now, finally, I will heed them," he told TOI.

Sircar's resignation comes in the wake of several party leaders taking a defiant tone. Another party Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said, "I will not oppose this (decision by Sircar) or support it. I have tried in my own little way to be one dot in this protest. People expect their MPs to speak out the truth." Asked on whether he, like Sircar, may also resign, Ray said, "If I do anything I will inform all."