Curtains for troubled 14th Lok Sabha this week

Another low was the ‘cash-for-votes’ scam when some BJP members displayed bundles of currency notes in the House alleging they were offered huge sums of money to help the Government secure the trust vote on July 22 last year in the wake of the crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Besides,it saw an ‘expulsion’ of a different kind. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was expelled by the CPI (M) last year after he ‘refused’ to resign from the high office in the wake of the Left parties withdrawing support to the Congress-led coalition.

Chatterjee,the first Left leader to adorn the high office,was also a target of attack from his party prompting him to remark that “this is the worst period of my life”.

Incidentally,the Opposition boycotted the Speaker for a day in the House,which was also perhaps an unprecedented development.