Jawahar Sircar: 'Mamata Has Crossed The Limit'

'The TMC can't go on forever taking advantage of the people's fright of the BJP.'

IMAGE: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference after the budget presentation in the state assembly, February 12, 2025. All Photographs: ANI Photo

With the West Bengal state assembly elections a year away, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is battling one crisis after another.

The brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor at the RG Kar hospital, the teachers' recruitment scam that has affected the lives of 25,000 teachers and thrown government schools into disarray, followed by the riots and violence unleashed in the Murshidabad and Malda districts in the wake of the Waqf (Amendment) Act.

"It is an ineffective government. It is so ineffective now that even if you tell them to fire they will not know what to do," former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, probably the most courageous voice in the state, tells Rediff Senior Contributor Payal Singh Mohanka

IMAGE: A victim of the Murshidabad violence that broke out on April 11, 2025 after a protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, seen in distress in Murshidabad, April 19, 2025.

"In my 50 years in public life, I have not seen such a thoroughly corrupt government. This is why an old man of 73 has to come out on the streets.

It is an ineffective government. It is so ineffective now that even if you tell them to fire they will not know what to do.

The police is there only to please their political masters. This was there under the Left regime but it's much worse now. Of course, serving only the ruling party is an all India phenomenon for the police.

I have no problem if one protests against the Waqf Act. But you don't go around killing people, as they did in Murshidabad. It was a sudden outburst that led to this unfortunate incident. Obviously someone incited them.

There could be local rage, but the police was completely inept and incompetent. By the time the government realised what was happening the court got into action and asked the BSF to take charge. But the BSF or central forces cannot be a substitute for the local police, because law and order is a state subject.

This flexing of muscles by the BSF is very dangerous as it plays into the hands of the BJP.

Both sides have made ridiculous allegations and statements. The BJP's Arjun Singh said 'Mai Bihar se log la kar saaf kar doonga.' There were other statements made about Bangladeshis inciting violence. Mamata Banerjee also claimed that Bangladeshis were being allowed in by the BSF.

There have been hundreds of arrests. Show me a non-local Bihari or Bangladeshi there. These statements are disconnected from reality. Leaders sitting in Kolkata were making irresponsible statements.

IMAGE: Victims of the April 11 Murshidabad violence protest at Samserganj in Betbona on April 19, 2025, demanding a permanent BSF camp.

In this incident, the TMC was a sitting duck. They should have had intelligence and an instant response system. Why were they shuffling their feet when it burst out?

Some claim it could be the TMC's diversion from their troubles in Kolkata. I don't think it could be so because that would truly be playing with fire. I am not convinced that this was a diversionary tactic.

It's now time for all groups who are disappointed with this regime to come together. Not only teachers, doctors and students, but also lawyers and other professionals. People have to come up with an alternative to both the TMC and the BJP.

Mamata Banerjee has crossed the limit and Bengal just does not accept the BJP because it considers it communal and casteist.

I recently attended the junior doctors' convention which was packed with thousands of doctors. I heard their grievances. They said many of the promises made by the CM to them have not been kept. These range from security, installation of cameras, restrooms, digital information on which hospitals have beds available to save patients the hassle of running from hospital to hospital.

Not fulfilling these minimal promises is incompetence.

IMAGE: Mamata Banerjee during a meeting with Muslim religious leaders to discuss the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 at the Netaji indoor stadium in Kolkata, April 16, 2025.

As the anger mounts some ask if the state will slip out of her hands.

If a single knock in a small district can throw you off gear for two days, what if this happened simultaneously in 5 districts?

This is a Pied Piper state. Whichever way the lady goes, the rest of the crowd, the TMC and the government, all follow her.

This has to be countered and we need to move in for a mass consolidation.

In Bengal the victory of the BJP is impossible unless a miracle happens. The only way the BJP could get in is with the Atal Bihari-Buddhadev Babu (the BJP's late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee-the CPI-M's late chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharya) model, where you have an educated person and a thorough gentleman, a bhadralok, leading the state.

The Bengalis suffer from an obsession with this model and Mamata does not fit their bill. Some BJP leaders had approached me when I resigned as TMC MP. I could never join a communal party.

The TMC cannot go on forever taking advantage of the people's fright of the BJP -- to get the votes of people who don't like her but vote for her to keep the BJP out.

She wins on their vote and then her goons keep threatening people and some of her elected representatives make obscene amounts of money.

There is now a growing section that feels let us shock her. Come what may let us shock her. This is a very dangerous thing as the BJP could gain.

People who are determined not to vote for the TMC or the BJP feel the Third Front of the Left and Congress will benefit and once the TMC's numbers and arrogance comes down, we may get a cleaner and more efficient Bengal."