Somnath Chatterjee (1929-2018): A strong voice, he spoke his mind

Chatterjee joined the CPI(M) in 1968, and within three years was approached by Communist stalwarts Promode Dasgupta and Benoy Konar to contest as an Independent, with the party’s support, from Burdwan, a seat held by his late-father, N C Chatterjee, who was a Hindu nationalist. Chatterjee was MP from Burdwan, then Jadavpur (in Kolkata), and finally Bolpur. He lost only once in his long electoral career — from Jadavpur in 1984, defeated by Mamata Banerjee, then 29 years old.

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Between 1989 and 2014, he was the CPI(M)’s leader of Lok Sabha. Those who heard or saw Parliamentary debates those days recall Chatterjee and his counterpart in the CPI, former Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, both occupying the front rows and holding forth, making a robust case on issues ranging from socialist principles to secularism.

A member of the CPI(M) central committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, Chatterjee, like that other Communist stalwart from Bengal, former chief minister Jyoti Basu, kept his own personality clearly delineated. To party hardliners, it was inconvenient at times, as Chatterjee drew praise from like-minded parties and refused to be just an apparatchik. There were whispers of “Parliamentary deviation” within the party but Chatterjee balanced it all and held sway over fellow Parliamentarians and others who saw him fight many pitched battles in the House.

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As the Lok Sabha Speaker, he held his own, and the legislature’s, when the judiciary was attempting to take on what many MPs believed was legislative terrain. His comment on the judiciary’s observations about the developments in Jharkhand Assembly was telling: “Supreme Court was encroaching on the right of the legislature by issuing orders on the proceedings of the Jharkhand Assembly”.

Chatterjee’s stature at the Bar allowed him to push the boundaries of what might be done — it was his idea to insist on live telecast of all debates in Lok Sabha, and bridge a crucial gap between the electors and the elected.

His command over the House helped Lok Sabha bat out the darkest hours when wads of cash were dumped on the table in a bid to stall proceedings, and suggest that money had changed hands.

But soon after he became the Lok Sabha Speaker for the Congress-led UPA-I, fissures that always existed between Chatterjee and the party – between what he held was appropriate Communist tactics and what party hardliners did – appeared too sharp to be managed or papered over any longer. That he could emerge as the UPA’s Presidential candidate in 2007 further sharpened the knives within the party.

It also became personal and bitter when Chatterjee refused to vote against UPA-I or step down as Speaker, and then CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat ensured that he lost his party membership. Chatterjee was able to complete the vote, and the UPA-I its term, but lost his party and was expelled the following morning.

Chatterjee continued to have an enigmatic relationship with the party he was with for 40 years. He remained sad and bitter to the end about the expulsion and was not ready, despite feelers subsequently, to rejoin. He continued to maintain sharp and informed commentary about the times but never allowed himself to be used as political fodder by the “other” side.