CPI-M had 'no option' but to expel Chatterjee

Hyderabad: A day after expelling Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat yesterday said his party had "no option" other than to take disciplinary action against the veteran Marxist.

"It is unfortunate that we had to take the decision [to expel Chatterjee]. It was not a happy thing to do but we had no other option," Karat told the media here, adding that Chatterjee was free to appeal to the party's central committee.

He said the party "did not want to say anything that will create controversy about the speaker's post".

"The issue is over as far as we are concerned. We have exercised disciplinary action as per the party mandate," he said when asked about attempts being made by the Congress to persuade Chatterjee to stay on as the speaker.

No party interference

"I have stated that it is for the speaker to decide whether or not to continue [in office]. It is up to him. But whether he will continue as a party member is a decision that we (the CPI-M) will take," said Karat who has been in the eye of a storm for his hawkish position on the India-US civil nuclear deal.

Karat clarified that the party had not taken any action that interfered with the role of the speaker even during the trust motion.

Chatterjee's association with the CPI-M goes back 40 years.

For the first time, Karat gave an idea of what had transpired in the CPI-M in the days that led to Chatterjee's expulsion. The party leadership had advised Chatterjee to give up the post of speaker after the Left Front withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, he said.

"From July 9, 2008, we became part of the opposition. The central committee, at its two-day meeting through July 19 and 20, decided that no party member should remain speaker after the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA government," he said.

"After the central committee meeting, we communicated our decision to Chatterjee. But he did not want to step down.

"The central committee had authorised us to take a decision. We did not want to do so during the special session and waited till it was over to take the disciplinary action."

Karat demanded that Chatterjee make public the tapes submitted to him by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the attempts made to bribe some party MPs. "The minority government has become the majority but that does not give it any legitimacy," he said and alleged that the government had exposed itself to serious charges of bribery, intimidation and horse-trading.

He alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had misled the nation on the nuclear deal. "He [the PM] said he would not go to the IAEA board but he went there."

Rivals united on action

Thiruvananthapuram: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who refused to toe the CPI-M line during the trust vote in Parliament this week and has since been expelled from the party, appears to have no supporters in the party's Kerala unit.

During the last Lok Sabha elections, the Left parties had bagged all but two of the 20 seats in Kerala.

Analysts feel that any perception of a rift within the party on the issue of Chatterjee's expulsion could hurt its prospects in the coming elections.

In Kerala, both Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and CPI-MM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan have supported the party's action against the Speaker.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India, Vijayan said no member of the party, regardless of heirarchy, had the right to breach party codes.

In state capital Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister Achuthanandan justified the party's action saying the manner in which Chatterjee acted was a clear violation of party discipline.

The unity displayed by the top leadership of the CPI-M in Kerala is boding well for the party's state unit as it attempts to retain power.

- By Akhel Mathew, Correspondent