The politics of West Bengal is quite heated right now, with the latest development of TMC leader Jawahar Sircar resigning as Rajya Sabha MP, citing public angst. Notably, his resignation comes in the backdrop of massive protests in West Bengal over RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case.
Former TMC Rajya Sabha MP informed about his resignation through an X post on 8 September 2024. He wrote, “I am quitting as MP primarily because of WB government’s faulty handling of the most spontaneous public movement following the terrible rape-murder case at RG Kar Hospital”.
He also mentioned the unchecked and overbearing attitude of the favored few and the corrupt.
The resignation of Jawahar Sircar from the post of Rajya Sabha MP has surely given a jolt to the TMC and Mamata Banerjee, but do you know the background of the ex-TMC MP?
Who is Jawahar Sircar?
Before his venture into politics, Sircar served as the CEO of Prasar Bharati from 2012 to 2016. Do you know? Once the Prasar Bharati under Jawahar Sircar had edited out an interview of PM Narendra Modi in 2014.
In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the then Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP and Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi had given a 54-minute long interview to DD News. However, the public broadcaster aired a heavily edited 30-minute long video, which caused controversy. Then the opposition party, the BJP alleged that portions of the interview, which had PM Modi’s comments over Priyanka Vadra and Congress leader Ahmed Patel were edited out.
DD News is run by Prasar Bharati which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the government of India.
After a massive backlash, the then Prasar Bharati CEO was forced to acknowledge the interview being ‘edited’. However, Sircar had then vaguely blamed the Information and Broadcasting Minister Congress leader Manish Tewari by pointing out that the Ministry had failed to grant ‘operational autonomy’ to Prasar Bharati over the years.
Anti-Modi Tweets
Jawahar Sircar is also known for his anti-Modi tweets over the years. In 2021, he had shared a morphed image of PM Narendra Modi bending forward towards Nita Ambani, wife of businessman Mukesh Ambani.
He wrote, “Wish fellow parliamentarians and others in politics also received such courtesy and bonhomie — from their permanently-scowling PM. In a mature democracy, we would know the two-way relationship, favours, transactions. Some day, history will tell us”.
However, many individuals pointed out to him that the image was morphed, as the actual image showed PM Modi meeting Deepika Mondal who runs an NGO named Divya Jyoti Cultural Organisation and Welfare Society.
In 2020, Sircar was condemned by Prasar Bharati employees after he had questioned the integrity of the public broadcaster. Earlier, that year, the then Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati had rejected the invite for a BBC event, citing the reason as their one-sided reporting of the Delhi riots in 2020.
Sharing a screenshot of news headline which reported Shashi Shekhar Vempati’s refusal to attend BBC event, Sircar wrote on X, “Prasar Bharati is now completely BJP’s Prachar Bharati!”.
After the tweet, Prasar Bharati Employees and journalists issued a press statement in which they condemned the statement of Jawahar Sircar. The press statement stated that it was unfortunate of Jawahar Sircar questioning the integrity of the very organisation in which he once worked.
As of now, Jawahar Sircar has not made it clear of his future endeavours, although he hinted at not continuing politics for the time-being. However, some rumors on social media suggest that he might be joining the Congress party after his resignation as a TMC MP.
