Click to play videoThe 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 The CPI-M has withdrawn support to the Government, so Chatterjee cannot continue as Speaker, he has said.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.
Naming Chatterjee as a party member and then sacking him smacks of the CPI-M’s arrogance and tyranny, said Trivedi, whose party is the main opposition in West Bengal. “The CPI-M is a Leninist and Stalinist party and it doesn’t believe in democracy. Sacking an MP is a party’s internal matter but the moment you became the Speaker the first thing you should do is resign as a party member. I don’t know whether Chatterjee did that,” he said.
The Constitution permits the Speaker to resign from his or her party without jeopardizing his office but that rarely happens. Just like a judge is not expected behave like a lawyer the Speaker is expected to forget his politics, said Desai.
The CPI-M insists that Chatterjee became the Speaker because he was a party MP. By that logic could the party direct the Speaker how to decide a particular issue or not allow certain MPs to speak, said Desai.
The CPI-M never interfered with Chatterjee’s work as a Speaker but when the party withdrew support to the Government it was his “moral duty” as an MP to remain out of the Government, said Pandhe.
That is wrong, said Desai. “The Speaker is not part of the Government, he represents the House and its independence. He may have to oppose the Government to protect the House,” he said.
It is time that the CPI-M allowed democracy and debate, said Choudhury. “On critical issues which will decide the future of the country all parties must have open decision making. An old style party system won’t work in a democracy,” he said.
SMS poll on ‘Is Somnath Chatterjee’s dismissal an example of Left tyranny?’
Yes 82 per cent, No 18 per cent.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
 |
 |
 |
|
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
