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Chatterjee says Speaker beyond party diktats
Terming his expulsion from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as "one of the saddest days" in his life, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday said no party could treat the presiding officer as its member and suggested that lawmakers elected to the post could temporarily resign from their parties.
- IANS
- Published: 00:04 August 2, 2008
New Delhi: Terming his expulsion from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as "one of the saddest days" in his life, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday said no party could treat the presiding officer as its member and suggested that lawmakers elected to the post could temporarily resign from their parties.
Chatterjee, Lok Sabha MP from Bolpur in West Bengal, took strong exception to the inclusion of his name on the list of CPI-M MPs shown as expected to vote against the government when party leaders met with President Pratibha Patil to assert their trust vote stand.
He said he had decided to uphold the constitution at the "risk of being unjustifiably dubbed as anti-party".
He was expelled from the CPI-M on July 23 for "seriously compromising the position of the party" by not stepping down as Speaker in defiance of the party diktat.
Surprised by list
Chatterjee said he had been "surprised" to learn his name was included in the communication to the president after the CPI-M-led Left parties broke their four-year-long association with the government on July 9.
"In the computation of the strength of either the ruling party or its allies or of the opposition, no responsible person or authority can treat the speaker as belonging to or extending support either to the government or its allies or to the opposition," he said in a six-page statement issued yesterday.
"Thus, the question of the speaker withdrawing support to the government can never arise. It is only the House as a whole that can decide whether the speaker should continue to remain as such or not, apart from his/her own decision to relinquish, if there is any such occasion," Chatterjee said.
Pointing out that while CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said more than once that the decision to quit as Speaker was left to Chatterjee, he said he was asked by a CPI-M politburo member on July 20 to resign from the post and vote against the government.
"When I refused, subsequently it was suggested that I should resign as Speaker and may not attend the House to cast my vote. I informed him of my inability to accept such decision or to act upon the same, as it will seriously compromise the constitutional position of the Speaker," Chatterjee explained in the statement.
"The party should have appreciated that as Speaker I did not represent it nor could it at all give any direction to me with regard to the discharge of my functions as Speaker. I reiterate this with all the emphasis at my command."
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