Basu writ led to exclusion of Somnath

BY SUBRATA CHATTOPADHYAY

KOLKATA

July 18: Retreating in the face of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s "obduracy", the CPI(M) did not issue a whip to him to vote against the UPA government during the floor test on July 22.

Significantly, the party has issued its whip to 41 CPI(M) MPs and also they have been asked to reach Delhi by July 20. The development clearly shows a shift in party general secretary Prakash Karat’s hardline to bracket the Speaker’s name in the party’s folds which earlier showed him as an MP.

Emerging from the crucial secretariat meeting on the eve of the party central committee meeting, CPI(M) state secretary and politburo member Biman Bose on Friday said, "Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has been excluded from the whip issued by the politburo to our MPs to vote against the government in the trust vote on July 22."

Party insiders revealed that it was by the prescription of the party patriarch Jyoti Basu that party bosses have kept the Speaker from the purview of the party mandate to vote against the Congress-led government.

The exclusion of Mr Chatterjee is significant as the CPI(M) has so far been maintaining that he should toe the line of the party to vote against the government along with the BJP.

While maintaining that it was for the Speaker to take a decision to quit his post, Mr Bose on Friday reasoned the earlier stand of the party that a person holding high office does not cease to have political affiliations.

"After someone ceases to be a Speaker, he resumes political activities," Mr Bose added, quoting party secretary in an interview giving clear signals that the party expects Mr Chatterjee to quit before the trust vote.

Mr Karat said, "We don’t follow the British precedent in India...we have a former Speaker as the Home Minister and another former Speaker is the leader of one of the Opposition groups in Lok Sabha. So all this talk of Speaker sans party and politics is hypocritical."

The directive comes ahead of the two-day meeting of the party central committee from July 19 to 20.