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Somnath Chatterjee, a victim of Left tyranny
Published on Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 07:11, Updated on Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 15:04 in India section
Tags: Somnath Chatterjee, CPI-M
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The CPI-M lost against the Government during the floor test in Parliament on Tuesday and then it lost public goodwill by expelling Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party on Wednesday.
The CPI-M wanted Chatterjee to resign as the Speaker after the Left Front withdrew support to the UPA government on July 8. Chatterjee, who had been associated with the CPI-M for 40 years, refused. The party waited till Wednesday and then summarily expelled him without a notice.
"It is unfortunate that we had to take the decision (to expel Chatterjee). But we had no other option," said CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat.
The CPI-M was already under fire for allegedly creating a political crisis in the country due its stubbornness against the Indo-US nuclear deal and anathema for America. By sacking Chatterjee—which resembled a Stalinist purge of dissent—the party may have lost the chance of being heard by people who were willing to lend it an ear.
Somnath was one of the tallest leaders of the party and its face in Parliament before he became the Speaker. Is his dismissal an example of Left tyranny?
CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to senior lawyer Ashok Desai, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Dinesh Trivedi, Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe, CPM politburo member and general secretary of trade union CITU, and Saifuddin Choudhury, a CPM leader who was forced to leave the party in 2000.
Being the Speaker
Karat has said that Chatterjee must resign because an Opposition MP cannot be the Speaker. The CPI-M has withdrawn support to the Government, so Chatterjee cannot continue as Speaker, he has said.
Desai rejected the CPI-M’s logic. “The Speaker is not a monitor or head boy—the Speaker represents the dignity and the independence of the House. The Speaker doesn’t represent any party,” he said.
Pandhe disagreed with Desai, saying Chatterjee became the Speaker because the CPI-M nominated him. “When we withdrew support to the Government and sent a list of our MPs to the President, then it is the duty of every MP to abide by the party policy. Even if he is the Speaker has to abide by the party policy,” said Pandhe.
“So much has talk has been made about Somnath Chatterjee’s virtues, but the party gave him positions and importance. So it was his duty to abide by party discipline.”
Stalinist purge?
Choudhury, who was eased out of the CPI-M for demanding greater transparency and democracy, demanded Pandhe to explain how it could list the Speaker as a party member.
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URBANEYE
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Dear IBN,
This is for all the messges sympathising with Somnath denigrating Prakash for the action taken.
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I do not feel sympatheric to Somnath. He was speaker and claimed that he was above party politics. But his
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Actually Somnath Chatterjee should have resigned from the Speakership even before the Trust vote as his party had withdrawn support
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There should be a limit to the perversion in media reports too. How many parties can claim to have inner
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It reminds me of my younger days in college when a dissident in China is shot or hanged for discipline
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