CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat eventually prevailed upon the Bengal unit of the party to toe his line and defend expulsion of Somnath Chatterjee from the party following his refusal to resign as the Speaker of Lok Sabha in July 2008.
While the politburo slammed Mr Chatterjee for his comments against party general secretary Prakash Karat which it described as “just post-facto justifications of a person who defected to the ruling establishment” in Kolkata, the CPI(M) state secretary dismissed them as “rubbish.”
The publication of certain excerpts from Mr Chatterjee’s forthcoming autobiography Keeping The Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian has put Mr Karat who is already facing strong resistance from the Bengal lobby for his strident anti-Congressism, in a tight spot. Mr Chatterjee has pointed out that Mr Karat’s decision to expel him was prompted by his arrogance and intolerance.
He has also claimed that CPI(M) patriarch and his mentor Jyoti Basu had advised him against resigning as the Speaker.
Mr Biman Bose who had on Sunday resisted Mr Karat’s pressure to issue a rejoinder to Mr Chatterjee’s tirade, finally gave in. Dismissing Mr Chatterjee’s comments as “rubbish”, he went so far as to suggest that the person who had given four decades of his life to the party was trying to damage it. “I feel that all this is rubbish. If by giving inputs someone wants to malign the party, then it is sad and in bad taste,” he added.
Expressing his anguish over the sharp reaction, Mr Chatterjee said: “They should have reacted after reading the book.”
Mr Bose was clearly following the directive of the central committee which has made it clear that the party’s “democratic centralism” will prevail.
Mr Bose questioned the propriety of Mr Chatterjee attributing certain comments to Jyoti Basu. “It is not proper to mention things about Jyoti babu who is not alive. He may have given a hand-written note. But how can someone who was not in the meeting know the content of the note?” he asked.
Mr Bose suggested that by revealing what transpired between Basu and him after the former’s demise, Mr Chatterjee had violated what he described as “normal Communist etiquette.”
Mr Bose’s criticism of Mr Chatterjee has made it clear that the Bengal lobby has decided to abandon its efforts for reinduction of the former Lok Sabha Speaker into the party.
The Bengal lobby held Mr Chatterjee in high esteem and was planning to raise the issue of his reinduction in the mini party Congress at Vijayawada beginning on August 7.