'Never witnessed such grievance against any govt', Trinamool MP resigns on RG Kar issue

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, on Sunday, announced his decision to resign from the Rajya Sabha as a protest against the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital as well as the corruption in governance in West Bengal.

Sircar has communicated this decision to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee through a letter dated September 8, where he has also said that he has decided to quit politics for good.

Later he told a section of the media persons that he would formally tender his resignation to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha soon.

In his letter to the Chief Minister, Sircar pointed out that he decided to resign from the Rajya Sabha in 2022 after evidence of corruption against the former West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee, surfaced. “I was harassed by a section of the party leadership. However, I refrained from resigning with a belief that you will continue with your moves against financial corruption,” Sircar pointed out in the letter.

He also said that the current mass movement throughout West Bengal on the R.G. Kar issue is because of the muscle flexing by a section of the pampered bureaucracy and corrupt persons.

“I have never witnessed such grievance and non-confidence against any government ever in my life. After carefully observing the sequence of events on the R.G. Kar issue for the last month a question came to my mind on why you are not directly interacting with the protesting junior doctors as you used to do before,” Sircar said.

He also said that the disciplinary measures being adopted by the state government now is a very late initiative and the situation in the health administration in the state could have been better had these disciplinary actions been taken much before.

“I personally feel that the current protests on this issue have been totally apolitical and spontaneous in nature. So it would be unfair to resist this movement by giving it a political tag. The movement is not just demanding justice for the victim but also against the state government and ruling dispensation," Sircar pointed out in the letter.

Till the time the report was filed, there was no reaction from Trinamool Congress on this count. However, the opposition party leaders have welcomed the decision of Sircar.