Karat critics attend Jyoti Basu lecture

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Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Thursday gave the first Jyoti Basu memorial lecture in the state Assembly. Present on the occasion were state CPI(M) leaders, including chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state party secretary Biman Bose. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, politburo members Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechury were conspicuous by their absence.

Besides the chief minister, commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen, considered a Karat-loyalist, was also present. However, perhaps in a bid to follow the Red rule book, the CPI(M) state secretary Mr Bose left just before Mr Chatterjee rose to speak.
Significantly, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Ba-nerjee, who was also invited, had expressed her inability to attend due to prior engagements. State Congress president and Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhunia not only attended but made an impassioned speech descr-ibing Basu as a “towering leader of the country despite being a Communist.”
The programme was organised at the initiative of Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim on Jyoti Basu’s 97th birth anniversary. The former chief minister passed away in January 2010.
Party sources said that Mr Halim had invited the expelled party leader to be the main speaker for Jyoti Basu memorial lecture with the consent of the state CPI(M) satraps. It would be naive to think that the CPI(M)’s Bengal lobby did not anticipate that their decision to invite him would upset Mr Karat. “But they apparently did not give it much importance,” a state secretariat member said.
The Bengal unit had not hidden its unhappiness over Mr Chatterjee’s expulsion after he refused to relinquish the post of Speaker over the contentious nuclear deal issue.
Both Mr Bose and chief minister Bhattacharjee have continued to maintain good relations with Mr Chatterjee even after his expulsion from the party. Mr Bhattacharjee, who had shared stage with Mr Chatterjee, had even admitted that he would take an initiative to bring him back to the party fold.