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Jawhar Sircar, a former IAS officer and former Rajya Sabha member, sees the issue through a similar political lens.

“Illegal immigration has always been a core issue with the BJP, and they apply this term only to Muslims,” he said. “Hindu immigrants without documents are treated separately as refugees.”

Sircar argued that migration has increasingly become intertwined with identity politics in eastern India.

“This way, attention can be diverted from real economic and employment problems of Bengal to other passion-based distractions,” he said.

The consequences, he warned, may extend beyond border management. “Bangladesh may not accept everyone pushed back unless they are absolutely certain about their status,” he said.

His concern is that immigration politics on one side of the border can easily generate nationalist reactions on the other.

“Communal elements on both sides feed on each other and will not be satisfied until their myopic aggression is able to divide the Bengali-speaking people into bitter adversaries,” he added.

Jawhar Sircar explains on CNN News 18 TV what the crisis in the TMC was and is — a major reason why it lost. He goes on record (with proof) how TMC was told all this 2-3 years ago but was not willing to correct itself, and why.

“The newer communities were added to the pre-2010 list during the final years of the erstwhile Left Front government and during the subsequent Mamata Banerjee era,” said Jawhar Sircar, former top civil servant.

“A significant majority of these communities were Muslims and were targeted as vote banks without proper socio-economic surveys from expert agencies to back their inclusions,” Sircar said.

He said that, unlike the roughly 24 per cent scheduled caste community presence in West Bengal, who are also mostly Hindus, the government’s understanding of the OBC population continues to remain vague.

“With a large number of Muslims now disenfranchised from the OBC list, the impact is more likely to be political than socio-economic,” Sircar said.

I Support "Free Garga"!
I never supported Garga Chatterjee's divisive or hate speeches
— I condemn them, like every other hate or divisive speech.

But if PM can get away with so many hate speeches like "Ya To Pakistan, Nahi to Kabaristan" and recognise a community from its… https://t.co/ZrCMYLPA4Y

— Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar) May 13, 2026

দলের প্রাক্তন রাজ্যসভা সাংসদ জহর সরকার এবার সরাসরি দলের শীর্ষ নেতৃত্বের একাংশকে লক্ষ্য করে তীব্র তোপ দাগলেন। পিটিআই-কে দেওয়া একটি সাক্ষাৎকারে তিনি দলের 'নেপথ্য কুশীলব'দের কড়া সমালোচনা করে বলেন যে, কিছু কুখ্যাত নেতার ভুল পরামর্শ এবং চাটুকারিতার কারণেই মমতা ব্যানার্জির দলকে আজ এই কঠিন পরিস্থিতির সম্মুখীন হতে হয়েছে।...জহরবাবুর কথায়, “দলের কিছু স্বার্থান্বেষী নেতা, যারা জীবনে কখনো মাটির কাছাকাছি থাকেনি, তারা কাল সকালেই ইতিহাসের পাতায় মুছে যাবে। এদের মধ্যে একজন তথাকথিত কুইজ মাস্টার রয়েছেন, যিনি সারা জীবনে গঠনমূলক কিছু করেননি, এমনকি কুইজটাও ঠিকমতো করতে পারেন না। স্রেফ মমতা ব্যানার্জির প্রতিটি কথায় সায় দিয়ে তিনি আজ অহেতুক ক্ষমতার চূড়ায় বসে আছেন।” তাঁর দাবি, এই স্তাবক বাহিনীই মুখ্যমন্ত্রীকে ভুল পথে চালিত করেছে এবং বাংলার মাটিতে তৃণমূলের ভরাডুবির জন্য এরাই দায়ী।...সোশ্যাল মিডিয়া প্ল্যাটফর্ম ‘এক্স’-এ আরও এক দফা বিস্ফোরক পোস্ট করেন এই প্রাক্তন আমলা। সেখানে তিনি লেখেন, “মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় যদি সময় থাকতে আমার সতর্কবার্তাগুলো শুনতেন, তোলাবাজ এবং দুর্নীতিবাজদের হাত থেকে দলকে বাঁচাতেন, তবে আজ তাঁকে এভাবে অপমানিত হতে হতো না। আমি তো দল ছেড়ে বেরিয়েই এসেছিলাম, কিন্তু ওই কুইজ মাস্টার দলটাকে এই বিপর্যয়ের দিকে ঠেলে দিল। একেই বলে কর্মফল বা কার্মা!” 

Jawhar Sircar, a decorated former official, represented Ms. Banerjee’s party inParliament’s upper house from 2021 to 2024. Watching the Trinamool Congress lose onMonday, he offered a bitter farewell. “You guys are secular, and God bless you for that.But you also became corrupt,” he said.

Jawahar Sircar, former bureaucrat and Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha member who resigned in the wake of the 2024 R G Kar rape and murder case, says Mamata’s innate understanding of protests makes her stand out even among leaders with a similar agitational style of politics. “Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal may have similar tactics. But Mamata can be physical and go in for a clash. Kejriwal can make a scene, but he won’t get his head or leg broken,” says Sircar.
"The idea she is trying to portray is that unless her party adopts such an aggressive approach, it can’t take on 24*7 cadre parties, first the CPI-M and now the BJP,” he adds.
Sircar recalls a moment in the run-up to the 1999 general elections when parties were prohibited from using the national flag under the Model Code of Conduct. “At a rally in South Kolkata, she went to the platform with a little girl and got her to raise the flag, while she held on to the girl.
It was a spot decision and her opponents who complained that she was using the national flag too much were outwitted. She said, ‘You don’t want me to raise the flag, I won’t’. She holds the little girl and gets all the publicity,” says Sircar.

पूर्व राज्यसभा सांसद Jawhar Sircar के हालिया बयान ने नई बहस छेड़ दी है—जिसमें उन्होंने केंद्र सरकार, विपक्ष और कई बड़े नेताओं पर सवाल उठाए हैं, जिनमें Narendra Modi और Raghav Chadha भी शामिल हैं।

"Retired bureaucrat and former Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Jawhar Sircar said that the number of voters who turned up to vote are very close to previous years when voting was less and that this was due to the deletions under the
SIR. "There is complete certainty that many genuine voters have been cut off, especially the 34.5 lakh people who have filed appeals to the tribunals. Nobody without a solid identity would go and make an appeal to a tribunal to get reinstated in the final voter list," Mr Sircar, said.
Mr Sircar feels that the high voter turnout could swing either way for either party. "There is a strong angst in Bengal against the way the people have been treated, how their names have been struck off. Many people have voted for who would have otherwise never voted. This may go against the BJP," he added.
"However, it may also be true that they have cleaned up the electoral rolls in such a way that it will be a signal victory for the BJP. However, it is not solely because of the clean up but because they have also eliminated lakhs of voters," Mr. Sircar added.
Mr. Sircar said that it could be possibility that many minority voters and TMC cadres have come out in large numbers to vote because the Bengali pride has been hurt due to the SIR process."

Former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar likened the I-PAC in Bengal to a “parallel TMC.”

“It is unaccountable but its personnel are there in every block, panchayat, municipality, sub-divison,district, etc as a shadowy KGB type apparatus. Initially, field functionaries of the TMC were cut up —some were quite hostile — but as politicians they know how to ‘manage’ I-PAC foot soldiers so they cansend back good feedback about them. I-PAC must surely be knowing the massive corruption of TMCcadres but Abhishek Banerjee used it as an information gathering organisation and to purge those whowere or are not loyal to him. I-PAC must be costing hundreds of crores but as long as it helps the top duokeep their stranglehold on the vast pyramid of the TMC cadres, it is hunky dory,” Sircar said.

Mr Jawhar Sircar, a former chief electoral officer of West Bengal, did not mince his words, saying: “The SIR is a blatant attack on democracy. The ECI has lost all credibility. It says people can reinstate their names later. What is the point of fixing the mess after the (West Bengal) election? Disenfranchising millions of people this way is unconstitutional.”

Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Jawahar Sircar, who has served as the Chief Electoral Officer in West Bengal, said that the Union government is yet to provide the number of illegal immigrants found in the SIR process.

“The Citizenship Act does not provide the Election Commission with the authority to look at citizenship. Yet in effect, the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has tuned the electoral machinery to look for citizenship, which is exactly what his longtime boss and patron (Union home minister) Amit Shah wants, ” he said. 

“Now the Supreme Court says that those who have been left out, their appeals will continue to be heard by the tribunals. It is tragic that the smooth decentralised setup that has done this work so well for 75 years – where hearings of appeals are done by CEO or DEOs (District Election Officers) under  Section 24 of the Representation of the People’s Act – was not given a chance by the Supreme Court. Instead, a grand top-heavy tribunal of high court judges has been set up by the Supreme Court, which is complicated and has hardly moved. It would have been speedier and more people may have got relief if the Supreme Court allowed Section 24 to operate, and stayed away from emotion and political controversies.”

Sircar said that “would be in the fitness of things if those adjudications that are appealed against and appear prima facie to be so excessive are re-examined by a separate agency.”

“No one is infallible and no one is above the law. By disenfranchising, in effect, lakhs of genuine voters, all those involved will be part of a highly regrettable infringement of constitutional rights and curtailment of electoral processes. Such mass scale deletions may harm democratic functioning more than do any purported good that was targeted,” he said.

Alt News reached out to retired Prasar Bharati CEO and former MP Jawhar Sircar. He said this was typically how a government acted when it was in decline and was on the way out. Sircar was also a member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT & Telecom.

“Between July and December of 2023, they introduced a series of amendments, this includes amendments in the Cinematograph Act, Telecom Act, Data Protection Act, and Information Technology Act. In the case of the Cinematograph Act, they claimed that the changes were being brought forth to deal with piracy, but in reality, it is for censorship. Similarly, the Data Protection Act, which should have actually provided protection to consumers from big tech, if turned out to be hardly protecting the users; instead, it has become a big laathi that the government is holding by controlling RTI through a mischievous clause,” Sircar said.

“The Telecom Act was rushed through Parliament in barely two hours. 146 Opposition MPs had been suspended, and we all walked out in protest. That is when the government passed the act without any debate. These are dangerous instruments that have been introduced one after another. Previously, only the IT Act was used to tighten the screws from all sides on social media platforms to take down material critical of the government and the government went after specific dissenters. Now, on panic mode, government has ramped up this weapon as well,” added Sircar, who was the Union culture secretary from 2008 to 2012. He also held part-time charge of I&B ministry twice.

Sircar added, “In fact, it is a propitious sign as this shows a government is totally desperate. This is how a government in decline acts.”

Jawhar Sircar, a retired IAS officer, attributes the mistrust towards the BJP in Bengal to cultural imposition. “Despite Bengalis having an intrinsic difficulty in communicating in proper Hindi, we don’t have any deep-rooted antagonism to Hindi. But whenever we feel that somebody is trying to impose a culture that is not germane to Bengal, there is a huge problem. The BJP is thus being perceived as a Hindi party. The Congress was never branded the same and neither was the BJP under Vajpayee, as they never imposed, and were moderate.”

“Much like when Amit Shah asked Malayalis to worship Vamana instead of Asura King Mahabali on the occasion of Onam, the BJP’s iconography and aggressive display of Hindutva pride through motorbike rallies and open swords have always been met with repulsion from a culture that worships a composite deity. Here, Durga is non-negotiable. Bengal will never have space for aggressive and restrictive Hinduism,” Sircar adds.

জহরের প্রশ্ন, "এত টাকা আইনজীবীদের উপরে খরচ না করে, যে সব বিষয় নিয়ে যুদ্ধং দেহি মনোভাবে দেখাচ্ছেন রাজ্য সরকারের নেতৃত্ব সেগুলিকে কি একটু মমতার সঙ্গে দেখা যায় না? ঘুষ না দিয়ে যে শিক্ষকেরা চাকরি পেয়েছেন, তাঁদের এত ভোগান্তি কেন? আরজি কর-এ নির্যাতিতার মানলায় কি সত্যই বিচার অসম্ভব? হাসপাতালে যারা চুরি করে দাপটে রাজত্ব চালাচ্ছিল তাদের কি কোনও শাস্তি হবে না?"

Retired bureaucrat and former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, who has known Banerjee from the time he was a magistrate and she a youth leader, says, “Kejriwal too was prone to such dramatics but he didn’t rise from the grassroots. He was gifted to the nation by Anna Hazare. Remember the Delhi riots? He never went out onto the streets for the people, not even for a day. Banerjee is not like that.”

Modi's latest order forcing all Indians to sing the entire Vande Mataram (not just the first 2 beautiful Hail Motherland part) is illegal, cynically divisive, and distacts a turbulent parliament and nation from real burning issues.
It bullies Muslims, Christians, Neo Buddhists, Liberal Secular Hindus to recite the later stanzas of Vande Mataram to pray to Durga and Lakshmi. Would Hindus like it if they are forced to pray to Allah (God) or to Jesus?

Speaking at the Mathrubhumi Festival of Letters 2026, former bureaucrat and author Jawhar Sircar warned that a fresh redistribution of Lok Sabha seats could significantly weaken the political voice of southern states, despite their success in education, healthcare and population control.

“Delimitation is not a technical exercise,” Sircar said. “It is about power — who speaks for the country and who gets spoken over.”

Sircar reminded the audience that India’s current parliamentary structure was shaped by a deliberate political choice. In 1971, then prime minister Indira Gandhi froze the redistribution of Lok Sabha seats based on population — a decision later extended through constitutional amendments.

At the time, southern states had aggressively implemented family planning programmes, while several northern states continued to see high population growth. Basing representation purely on numbers, Sircar argued, would have penalised states that governed well.

“The freeze was an act of political wisdom,” he said. “It protected India as a federal union, not a headcount democracy.”