By remaining in office, Speaker compromised party position: CPM

The CPI(M) on Monday hit out at Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee accusing him of giving “factually incorrect” arguments...

The CPI(M) on Monday hit out at Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee accusing him of giving “factually incorrect” arguments to justify his decision to continue in office, escalating the war of words between him and the party ever since his expulsion from its fold.

The party is planning to come out with a detailed statement, which would be a point-by-point rebuttal of Chatterjee’s contentions, to make it clear that as far as the party is concerned he had “seriously compromised” the position and official line of the CPI(M) by remaining in office.

Sources in the CPI(M) also made it clear that general secretary Prakash Karat and some senior leaders had told Chatterjee that his continuance in office had become “untenable” after the Left’s withdrawal of support to the UPA Government much before the Politburo had officially asked him to step down.

In response to Chatterjee’s statement, CPI(M) Politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai said the party had “not interfered” with the Speaker’s constitutional functions or duties and noted that as a party member it was his primary responsibility to abide by its decision.

“We allowed him to accept the post as Speaker in the context of our decision to support the UPA. Once the support is withdrawn, his continuance in office becomes untenable. We asked him to step down, but he refused. What he did was he refused to abide by the decision of the party,” Pillai told The Indian Express.

His comments were in reply to Chatterjee’s assertion that the CPI(M) should have appreciated that as Speaker he did not represent it nor could the party give any direction to him with regard to the discharge of his functions.

“We haven’t interfered with his constitutional functions and duties. He was a party member at that time and we only asked him to abide by the party’s decision,” he said, adding that Chatterjee derived his position by virtue of his being a member of the party and an MP belonging to the CPI(M).

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Pillai said the CPI(M) leadership had conveyed to him that his continuance in office after withdrawal of support was “untenable” and Chatterjee’s assertion that it was only on July 20 that a Politburo member told him that he should resign before the trust vote was “factually incorrect”.

Senior leaders said though the party’s official line was that it was for the Speaker to take a decision keeping in mind the circumstances consequent to the withdrawal of support, the understanding was that Chatterjee would step down before the trust vote as the decision was that all MPs would vote against the Manmohan Singh Government.

The CPI(M) also rejected the proposal mooted by Chatterjee that an MP should temporarily resign from the membership of the party once he is elected as Speaker so that the person should not face a situation which compromises the position of the Speaker vis-a-vis the party. “There have been many Speakers in India and so far none of them has said the party is interfering with their constitutional functions and duties. This proposal is just a way to justify his decision to continue in office. There is no need for such a new convention,” Pillai said.