Trinamool MP Threatens To Quit Parliament Over Kolkata Rape-Murder Case

Trinamool MP Jawhar Sircar has threatened to resign over the Mamata Banerjee government's handling of the wave of protests against the rape-murder at a hospital that has shocked the entire country. In an open letter to the Chief Minister, Mr Sircar also registered his protest against the corruption within the ruling Trinamool Congress by a section of leaders who, he said, are gaining in strength.  

The letter comes on a day a massive statewide protest is due -- it would be the centrepiece of a worldwide chain of protest the expat Bengali community has planned today.

About the protests, he said the government is doing "too little, too late" in face of the "spontaneous outpouring of public anger against this unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt".

Pointing to the corruption allegations against the ruling government, he said when he pointed to the  "evidence of corruption that the former education minister" in 2022 and sought action, he was "heckled by senior leaders in the party".

"I did not resign then as I had hoped that you would carry on your public campaign against 'cut money' and corruption that you had started a year earlier," he wrote

"Let us analyse frankly and realise that the movement is as much for Abhaya as it is against the state government and the party... 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 added.

He said till now, he 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," the letter read.

Pointing out that the doctors and a majority of the protesters are not encouraging politics, he said, unless course correction is made immediately, "communal forces will capture this state".

The letter also coincides with a full-page advertisement of the state government in leading dailies, announcing a series of measures it has planned to ensure women's safety.

The Rs 100-crore plan includes fast-track and POCSO courts, 49 women police stations, CCTV and lighting at designated points, deployment of female volunteers at night.