A Girish Nikam website Every report that concerns India

By Girish Nikam (गिरीश निकम)

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When a party like the CPI(M) decides that one of its members has committed “indiscipline”, it doesn’t bother about the consequences. One, who would like to look at it from the point of view of the party, may appreciate it for its principled approach. But after it decided to expel summarily, a comrade whom it had positioned in the highest constitutional position any of its members held in its long history, the question is has it just over-stretched itself. And whether this action is a precursor to a schism if not a 1964 kind of split in the party itself in the foreseeable future?
The expulsion of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee using the “exceptional circumstances” clause, in its party constitution is bound to attract mixed reaction. While hardcore comrades, who see Chatterjee’s refusal to fall in line, when the party asked him to quit from the post, as an extreme act of “indiscipline”, there are people including comrades in the party, who are feeling that he did nothing wrong.
A Union Minister rightly pointed out that if in case, Chatterjee had been elected as the President of India, in place of Pratibha Patil, would the party has expected him to resign from the post, when it withdrew support to the UPA Government. The post of the Speaker is as much a constitutional post as that of the President. Of course our Constitution does not, as the CPI (M) Leaders rightly point out, expressly specify that the Speaker becomes a non-party person, once he occupies the post. But if one goes through the convention and tradition, most good Speakers of Lok Sabha have refrained from participating in party activities, atleast as long as they hold the post.
But the party strongly feels that after having enjoyed the party’s patronage for so long, almost three and half decades, he had an obligation to fall in line with decision of the party. “There is no one else in the party who has got so much from the party as he has”, is the refrain from A.K.Gopalan Bhavan.
Of course the genesis of the problem between the party and more so it’s General Secretary Prakash Karat, whose dogmatism is well known, and Chatterjee began soon after the latter was appointed the Speaker. The party did not appreciate the stand taken by Chatterjee when he went to the party office to submit his resignation from the membership of the Central Committee, considered the most powerful body of the party. Even then it was felt by Karat and his ilk that Chatterjee had done something which he need not have, and the irritation was palpable. Ever since the wedge only grew further. It became worse when the Speaker was seen as a strong candidate for the President’s post and later for the Vice President. However even as the public debate about his possible candidature was going on, his grouse was that the party did not make its position clear, thereby embarrassing him.
The situation only became worse with every session with the comrades in the lok Sabha, only becoming more and more sensitive about each and every word uttered by Chatterjee while presiding over the House aimed at them. In the last some months, anyone who had an ear to the ground was aware that there was hardly any love lost between the party and the Speaker. Except for very few MPs and leaders in the party, Chatterjee was someone to avoid. The mutual distrust had almost reached a point of no return, when the party took the decision to withdraw support to the UPA Government.
What took Chatterjee’s goat was that serious “oversight” of including his name in the party members’ list which was submitted to the President while withdrawing support to the Government. He was convinced that it was done with the objective of forcing him to quit. Though it was later clarified, the latter events clearly indicate that the party had indeed done it with a purpose.
Being a party which takes its discipline seriously, the party did not want to make a distinction about the post he held, and just saw him as another MP. But with heavyweight supporters from political parties, legal luminaries and even from the Government, it made his task of defiance that much easier. His decision not to contest another election also helped in him remaining steadfast in his stand.
Now that the party has expelled him, is it the end of the political life of Somnath Chatterjee? Atleast for the next ten months, till the lok Sabha elections are held, he cannot indulge in any politics or atleast as long as he decides to continue in his post. But it is quite possible that during this period a ginger group may emerge within the CPI (M) and more possibly among its sympathizers, which includes many intellectuals, artistes among others, who already have taken a stand against the party in relation to Nandigram and Singur episodes.
This ginger group, if and when it emerges, may become the fulcrum for challenging the party and its policies on not just its attitude towards Chatterjee, but on many other issues including its present political line.
It will all however depend on what Chatterjee has in his mind when it comes to his own future, which he has not revealed to anyone so far. But what the party has done to him may just add to his stature rather than diminishing it, of course provided he displays the same kind of courage and conviction in taking action against those who are alleged to be involved in horse trading in the last couple of days.