Hours after the Supreme Court of India delivered a damning verdict on the West Bengal government’s handling of teachers’ recruitment, former Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Jawhar Sircar has spoken out against the party, citing corruption and authoritarianism as the reasons for his departure.
Sircar, a former bureaucrat-turned-politician, resigned from his position as a Rajya Sabha member in 2024. His exit from the party, he clarified, was driven by what he described as an “too much” corruption within the organisation.
“People ask why I resigned from TMC. Would my conscience allow me to be part of such rot?” Sircar wrote in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter). “I joined TMC because it is the toughest fighter against the communal, fascist BJP. But I left because TMC’s corruption and authoritarianism were getting too bad.”
His remarks come in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld a Calcutta High Court decision to cancel over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching positions. The appointments, made under the West Bengal School Service Commission, were deemed to be tainted by “manipulation and fraud,” the court said.
Sircar, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of India’s public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, had joined TMC in 2021, expecting to contribute to its fight against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level. But his tenure in the party was marked by growing disillusionment.
In 2024, he publicly distanced himself from the party following a doctor’s rape and murder at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College. In an interview with The Indian Express, Sircar had said, “The RG Kar case calls for a large-scale immediate rectification. That rectification you (Mamata Banerjee) can do. Course rectification, image rectification… The doctors, go and talk to them directly.” He had also said that he had advised Banerjee to personally intervene with the protesting junior doctors, but his recommendations were ignored.
In an open letter addressed to the Bengal CM, Sircar had previously raised concerns over corruption, alleging that when he pointed out evidence of wrongdoing involving former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, he faced hostility from TMC leadership. Chatterjee was later arrested in a high-profile corruption case related to school appointments.
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The Supreme Court ruling now further intensifies scrutiny on the Mamata Banerjee government, which has long positioned itself as a defender of democratic values against the BJP’s rising influence in India. The judgment by a bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar found that the hiring process had been deeply compromised by fraudulent practices.
For Sircar, the ruling vindicates his decision to leave.