TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday tendered his resignation from both Parliament and politics, over the incident of rape-murder of a junior doctor in RG Kar hospital and corruption issues within his party.
Jawhar Sircar, who is also a retired IAS officer, in his resignation letter to Mamata Banerjee, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to represent the state's concerns but claimed that corruption by a section of leaders of his party and lack of action against them was one of the reasons for his decision.
"I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital, and was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee. It has not happened and whatever punitive steps that government is taking now are too little and quite late," he said in the letter.
"I think normalcy may have been restored in this state much earlier, if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed and those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened."
He criticised the punitive measures currently being implemented, "too little and quite late."
Sircar recalled that after publicly calling for the party to address the corruption scandal, he was met with resistance from senior party leaders.
Though disheartened, he chose to remain in office, hoping that the party would take a stronger stance against corruption, particularly after a public campaign launched by the party leadership the year prior. However, his hopes were dashed as the party remained indifferent to the issue.
The MP, who had joined politics well after retirement from the IAS, acknowledged the privilege of engaging with the political process at the national level. He emphasised that his primary motivation for entering politics was to combat the "autocratic and communal politics" of the ruling BJP and its leadership.