After the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the Mamata Banerjee government over the appointment of school teachers, former Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar hit out at the party for “corruption and authoritarianism".
“People ask me why I resigned as MP of TMC. Would my conscience allow me to be a part of such rot? I went with TMC as it is the toughest fighter against communal, fascist BJP. I left because TMC’s corruption & authoritarianism were getting too bad," Sircar said on X.
Sircar, a retired IAS officer, resigned from the Rajya Sabha and active politics in September last year, citing his protest against the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government’s handling of the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case. He had also voiced his concerns over the ruling TMC government’s “lack of decisive action" against corruption.
Sircar, in his letter, highlighted that after publicly urging the TMC to address corruption scandals prevailing in the party, he faced resistance from senior leaders. He further referred to the ongoing public outrage over the RG Kar case and said, “I have not seen such angst and total no-confidence against the government."
His remarks came after the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to annul the appointments of 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the state School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016 over an alleged school jobs-for-cash scam.
The Bengal jobs-for-cash scam relates to the illegal hiring of teachers and staff in the primary and secondary schools during the 2016 recruitment process. In 2016, more than 23 lakh candidates took exams for 25,000 job openings. However, later complaints were raised to the Calcutta High Court that several candidates were given jobs unfairly as their answer sheets were wrongly checked.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjiv Kumar refused to interfere with the High Court’s verdict, observing that the appointments were vitiated by fraud.
“We have gone through the facts. Regarding findings of this case, entire selection process is vitiated by manipulation and fraud and credibility and legitimacy is denuded. No reason to interfere. Tainted candidates must be terminated and appointments were resultant of cheating and thus fraud," the Court said in its judgment.
