Offer from Congress not a first: Somnath

“But I turned down all those offers. I never worked under anybody and now also I cannot do that. I have very little needs,” said the octogenarian leader who is currently spending most of his time at Santiniketan.

On October 21,Chatterjee wrote to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram rejecting the government’s latest offer.

“I cannot answer why Congress offered me the post. You are free to interpret it,” said Chatterjee.

“ But if I had accepted the offer,people would have said that I accepted Congress party’s offer,which I would not have been able to digest. That is one reason why I did not accept the Centre’s offer,” he added.

“And the second thing is that after spending 40 years in Lok Sabha where I was the Speaker for five years,I did not think I would have been able to contribute much to the Parliament. Moreover,a nominated member does not have much scope,” he added.

Various social activities initiated by the former Lok Sabha Speaker at Santiniketan keep him pre-occupied.

Chatterjee has set up a football academy,a polytechnic and a women’s school at Santiniketan.

It is not only the UPA government,which is offering the veteran leader with plum posts.

“I got lucrative offers to join the Bar and I know I could earn a lot of money through legal profession. But I have already said I want to live a quiet,peaceful life,” said Chatterjee who was also a legal luminary.

CPM leaders clam up
After the news broke that Somnath Chatterjee has rejected Congress party’s offer of becoming the nominated member of the Rajya Sabha,CPM leaders were guarded in commenting on the issue.

“I don’t know whether Somnathda had got any such offer. So I don’t want to make any comment,” said Brinda Karat,Rajya Sabha member from the CPM.

Chatterjee was expelled from the CPM last year after he refused to resign from the post of Lok Sabha Speaker in the wake of Left Front pulling out the support from the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Another Rajya Sabha MP from the CPM said Chatterjee’s joining the Rajya Sabha would have enhanced the quality of debate.

“He is a veteran parliamentarian and his joining the Rajya Sabha would have increased the quality of debate. But I cannot comment on whether he should have accepted the offer or not,” said Tapan Kumar Sen.

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