Trinamool Tensions: Jawhar Sircar Rejects Mamata's Plea to Revoke Resignation

The Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member and former IAS officer Jawhar Sircar has refused to listen to the appeal of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to reconsider his resignation from Rajya Sabha and getting out of politics.

Sources close to him said Sircar announced his resignation in the backdrop of his angry reaction over the rape and brutal murder of a junior doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital and all-pervasive corruption in governance. Subsequently, Mamata Banerjee, the chief of Trinamool Congress, too spoke to Sircar personally to reconsider his decision.

But despite the latter's plea, Sircar replied "politely yet firmly" that his message had reached the people, and he could not recall his decision.
Sircar is likely to send his resignation letter to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha on September 12.

Writing to Banerjee, Sircar said he had never seen such universal disgust and loss of confidence in any government. He made it clear that the protests continuing since the incident was purely apolitical and spontaneous and that it will be a travesty to term them political. The protests, he said, were not merely a demand for justice to the rape victim but also an expression of outrage against the state government and the ruling party.

Sircar also referred to his previous decision of resigning from Rajya Sabha in 2022 after allegations of corruption against the then Education Minister of West Bengal, Partha Chatterjee. He said though harassed by a few party members, he had chosen to stay on and hoped that Banerjee would continue to fight financial corruption.

He blamed the state of affairs in West Bengal on the privileged bureaucracy and the corrupt, causing unrest across the districts. Sircar even asked why Banerjee had not directly engaged with the protesting junior doctors, something she had been doing all along.

He further commented that the disciplinary actions presently being taken by the state government were overdue and that, had these been taken earlier, the situation of the health administration might have improved a great deal.