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Journalism of Courage
The MPs who defied party whips in the recent trust vote favouring the UPA government were bound to face a public backlash, said Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
The Sena chief also hailed Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for courage of conviction in his face-off with the CPM bosses.
In a pointed reference to the Sena MP from Parbhani, Tukaram Renge Patil, expelled after the floor test for abstention, Thackeray said that Shiv Sena had made Patil MLA twice and MP once.
Despite this he chose to go against the party line to support Congress. Such people should face public wrath for their disloyalty and mere expulsion will not suffice, he said on Friday in an editorial in 8216;saamana8217;.
The editorial comment in the Sena mouthpiece came even as Renge Patil alleged on a television channel that he was being bullied by Shiv Sainiks and faced threat to his life.
The expelled MP accused the party leaders of insulting him repeatedly and claimed that he chose to abstain in the trust vote because of the treatment meted out to him by the party bosses.
A spokesman of the Sena from Parbhani district denied all charges.
On Somnath Chatterjee8217;s defiance of CPM high command, Thackeray said the 79-year-old veteran who matched Jyoti Basu and Buddhadev Bhattacharya in stature, stuck to a principled stand disapproving the Left joining hands with BJP in toppling the UPA government.
8220;We have ideological differences with Somnath Chatterjee but he has commanded respect by showing courage by keeping his conscience,8221; he added.
Thackeray said, the Communists had never bothered for India8217;s national interests and their stand on the nuke deal on that pretext was a shame.
8220;When they failed to dislodge the Manmohan Singh government and make BSP leader Mayawati the Prime Minister, the CPM bosses took out their anger on Somnath Chatterjee and expelled him,8221; the edit said.
Chatterjee preferred political martyrdom for his secular ideology to toeing a party line that his conscience did not permit, the editorial added.
