Subhas says he won’t be hushed

Although the CPIM Central Committee censored transport minister Subhas Chakraborty for his reservations in voting with the BJP, the maverick minister remains defiant. “What I had said was according to my party line. The party line was adopted in the party congress, the highest authority of our party,” he said when asked for his reaction on the CC’s decision. “One cannot hush up such opinion by censorship. I have initiated a debate in the party. “

Party sources said that Chakraborty would raise the issue in the party’s state committee meeting on July 25 and 26. While speaking to The Indian Express in July, he had said that his party’s decision to vote along with the BJP against the UPA Government would harm the CPIM in the long run and was thus unwanted.

Chakraborty’s publicly voiced criticism highlights the party’s sharp division over the issue. Following his comments, there was uproar within the party, and the CC demanded an explanation. He wrote to the state secretary Biman Bose, accepting that making the comment publicly was a mistake according to the party rulebook but refused to withdraw the comment.

Sources said that after hearing about the censor, an agitated Chakraborty reportedly told his associates, “Our party supported the Congress to thwart the communal BJP from grabbing power at the centre. Now we are voting along with the BJP to topple the UPA? Is it a politically matured decision?”