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Somnath sacked, CPM says he is no copybook comrade
Published on Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 03:18, Updated at Thu, Jul 24, 2008 in 
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DEFIANT SOMNATH EXPELLED: CPM on Wednesday announced his expulsion from the party membership.
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New Delhi: After weeks of will he, wont he, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, much to the anger of his party leadership, chaired the Trust Vote. Calling it the last straw, CPM on Wednesday announced his expulsion from the party membership.
Justifying their decision, the party said Chatterjee was not a copybook comrade.
“When our party withdrew the support to the Government and took the decision to oppose the confidence motion, it was his duty as a party member to respond to the party and step down. But he didn’t do it. That is why we have no choice but to take this action that was taken on Wednesday. He has been expelled from the primary membership of the party. Everybody is under discipline, however big he is he has to come under the party discipline. It was a unanimous decision and the decision has the support of Mr Jyoti Basu also,” CPM Politburo MK Pandhe said.
While General Secretary of RSP TJ Chandrachudan said, “How did he become the Speaker? It’s all because of the Left or he would have just been known as NC Chatterjee’s son.”
But sources say Chatterjee intends to continue in the chair and will attend the Commonwealth Speakers’ conference from August 1 to 10 in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, constitutional experts say Chatterjee is very much in the right. “Expulsion from the party has no bearing upon his membership of the House,” former attorney general Soli Sorabjee said.
For a man who has won the best parliamentarian award, Chatterjee interestingly began his parliamentary career as an independent MP supported by the CPM. Now in the twilight of his career he will be an unattached MP for the rest of his tenure.
Chairing the Trust Vote was one of the highlights of Chatterjee’s tenure as the Speaker of Lok Sabha.
But ironically, that led to his expulsion from a party that he has led in the House for decades. And while the debate over who is in the wrong continues, one thing is certain that the CPM has lost one of its best orators.
Reacting to Chatterjee's sacking, Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad lashed out at the CPI-M.
"The CPI-M has become mad. Whole country is behind him (Somnath Chatterjee)," Lalu said.
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