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Somnath rules out return to CPI(M)

Kolkata: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who was expelled from the CPI(M) after he refused to toe the party decision during the trust vote in July that he must quit his post, has ruled out returning to the party “at this age.”

“No, No. I am not giving thought to the question at this age,” Mr. Chatterjee said in reply to a question.

In an interview to a Bengali news channel telecast on Sunday, the 80-year-old leader said he was pained when CPI(M) MPs accused him of being partisan in his conduct of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.

“There is no scope for the Lok Sabha Speaker to be partisan when his job is not only to do justice, but also ensure that justice is seen to be done.”

“Whether I made wrong or right decision, I don’t know. But most people have backed my stand. Moreover, I am nearing my retirement… Of course, there are places where Speakers cannot rise above party identity,” he said.

Referring to his expulsion from the party, Mr. Chatterjee said he had clearly explained his position on this issue on August 1.

“They have the right to take a decision on the basis of the party constitution. I have also accepted it and did not appeal against it. If the expulsion strengthens the party, I will be happy, though I am no longer in it.”

Asked what the CPI(M) patriarch, Jyoti Basu, told him when he met him in the midst of the controversy, he said: “That I will not tell you. But one thing I can say. He did not tell me that I should quit.”

H said he had got a proposal to write an autobiography in the form of a parliamentary diary, which would contain the events centring on the controversy. — PTI

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