The Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday expressed his desire to step down from the upper House of the Parliament as well as retire from politics.
Three years after being handpicked by Mamata Banerjee for the Rajya Sabha, in a two-page letter written to the chief minister on his MP’s letterhead, Sircar, a retired IAS officer, poured his anguish over the rape and murder of the 31-year old postgraduate trainee at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the ruling Trinamul and the administration’s repressive steps to curb the protests and the corruption charges levelled at the ruling party from time to time.
“If we analyse the movement impartially, we will find the movement is directed as much as for the victim, as well as against the state government and the ruling party,” Sircar wrote in Bangla. “Therefore, there is a need to change strategy or the communal forces will take over the state.”
The two-page letter written to Mamata Banerjee
The two-page letter written to Mamata Banerjee
“I cannot accept when a corrupt officer (or a doctor) is given a prized posting or even appointed to the top,” Sircar wrote without taking any names.
Sunday post-midnight marks the completion of a month since the PGT was found dead with multiple injuries including her private parts. Young girls, women and a large number of members from what is broadly classified as the civil society have been on the streets demanding justice for the victim. The Calcutta Police which had set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the case and made the sole arrest has been accused of tampering evidence and also trying to bribe the victim’s parents. The case is now being probed by the CBI on the order of the Calcutta High Court, while the Supreme Court has taken suo moto cognizance of the matter. A hearing at the apex court is scheduled for Monday.
In his letter Sircar said, he was watching the events for the last 30 days.
“The spontaneous protests and the anger visible on the streets is because of the muscle-flexing of some bureaucrats and corrupt people. I have never seen such a show of no confidence against a government in my long public life. People are even refusing to believe the government when it is trying to present some facts,” Sircar wrote. “Observing the events in the last one month I have often wondered where is the Mamata Banerjee of yore? Why she is herself not holding talks with the junior doctors? Now whatever steps the government is taking is too little and too late.”
Sircar believes the Bengal government could have avoided this situation, had it taken action against the charges of corruption levelled against the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh, who has been arrested by CBI.
“Everyone feels normalcy could have returned to the state had the government taken steps to break the ring of corruption and punished those involved in this heinous crime,” wrote Sircar.
Though Ghosh had submitted his resignation from health services, Mamata had him reinstated as principal of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, where he could not attend office for even a single day. Protests erupted at some other cronies of Ghosh who have been transferred elsewhere.
He also reminded the chief minister that when he had spoken out against the party for not taking action then state education minister (Partha Chatterjee, now in jail), he was condemned by a section of the senior leaders in the party.
“I did not resign then because I believed you would have carried on with the action against “cut money” and financial corruption. Some of my well-wishers advised me to continue in my role as MP and speak against the totalitarian and corrupt Modi government,” Sircar.
The Rajya Sabha MP wrote while he continued to perform his duty, the goings-on in the party depressed him.
“The corruption in my state and the unjustified iron-hold of a section of the party leaders disheartened me. I saw that the state government was unable to control this,” he wrote. “You must be aware I am the only IAS officer to whom the previous government did not allot a plot of land in Salt Lake. People are aware I had criticised some of the policies of the previous government. I live in a small flat besides a slum and drive a nine-year old car and have no problems with it,” Sircar wrote. “It surprises and angers me to see panchayat and municipal officials moving around in vehicles.”
Sircar said he was forced to write the letter as he has not been able to meet the chief minister for some time. He will be traveling to Delhi later this week to submit his resignation from the Rajya Sabha.
Sircar’s colleague in the upper house Sukhendu Shekhar Ray is the only Trinamul MP to have spoken out against the “dubious” role of the Calcutta Police, for which he had received summons from the Lalbazar a week ago.
Other Rajya Sabha MPs like Sagarika Ghose, Sushmita Dev and Krishnagar’s Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra have parroted the government’s line, while Derek O’Brien the leader in the Rajya Sabha raised questions on the delay in the CBI’s investigation.
Several others from the ruling Trinamul have pointed fingers at prominent members from the civil society who have hit the streets demanding justice for the slain doctor.
