Kolkata: In the wake of the recent Kolkata rape and murder case, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Jawahar Sircar, resigned from his post in the upper house after alleging that the Mamata Banerjee-led government in Bengal was ‘quite unconcerned about corruption and the increasing strong-arm tactics of a section of leaders.’
Sharing his resignation letter addressed to party chairperson and Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, Sircar stated on social media that he was quitting as Bengal government’s faulty handling of the ‘most spontaneous public movement following the terrible rape-murder case at RG Kar Hospital.’ He further stated that his commitment to values remained unchanged.
I am quitting as MP primarily because of WB government’s faulty handling of the most spontaneous public movement following the terrible rape-murder case at RG Kar Hospital.
Quitting politics— to be with the people in their struggle for justice.
My commitment to values unchanged pic.twitter.com/V98R06ziny— Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar) September 8, 2024
‘Believe me, the present spontaneous outpouring of public anger is against this unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt. In all my years, I have not seen such angst and total no-confidence against the government, even when it says something correct or factual,” he stated in his letter to Banerjee, adding that he had hoped a direct intervention of the CM with the agitating doctors, in the ‘old style of Mamata Banerjee.’
‘Protests against RG Kar case not political’
He further mentioned that the protests in Bengal were largely non-political and it was not appropriate on anyone’s part to take a ‘confrontational’ stand by labelling these as political.
“Of course, the opposition parties are trying to fish in troubled waters, but the mass of the youth and the common people who are agitating on the streets every second day don’t encourage them. They want no politics, they want justice and punishment,” the MP wrote at a time the ruling TMC had alleged that the opposition parties were politicizing the matter and the police had even resorted to baton-charging, lobbing of tear gas and firing water canons at protestors during a march to the state Secretariat or Nabanna that houses the office of the CM.
‘Leaders in Bengal have big assets, expensive vehicles’
The MP, who was also a former bureaucrat, claimed that he was amazed to see how panchayat and municipal leaders in Bengal had acquired ‘big properties and move around in expensive vehicles.’ ‘..This hurts only me, but the people f West Bengal,’ he added.
The Mamata Banerjee government is facing backlash over the handling of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at the seminar hall of a state-run hospital in Kolkata.
