New Delhi: Today and tomorrow will likely be among the most important days of Somnath Chatterjee’s life.
Lok Sabha umpire : Speaker Somnath Chatterjee
The 79-year old Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, member, a 10-time parliamentarian from West Bengal, and independent India’s 14th Speaker will likely oversee the trust vote the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will seek in Parliament at the end of a special two-day session that starts today—that is, if he doesn’t resign even before the beginning of the session, one of the three choices that seem open to him.
The second is to initiate the debate and resign before the vote and the third, see the vote through.
At stake are issues related to free will, parliamentary convention, and party loyalty.
The CPM is the largest constituent of the Left Front, the ally that supported the UPA government for four years without being part of it and finally withdrew the support earlier this month over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. The UPA wants the deal; the Left Front doesn’t; and that line should be clear for most members of Parliament belonging to either group.
The Speaker’s position, however, is different. And Chatterjee, even his critics in the House admit, has been a good Speaker. In June 2004, when he was unanimously selected Speaker, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed his election on the floor of the House and admitted to a connection with his family: In 1947, after a young Singh fled Pakistan and moved to Amritsar, he’d studied economics at Hindu College, whose chairman was N.C. Chatterjee, Somnath Chatterjee’s father.
“Now I shall have peaceful nights…I am sure you will be a good Speaker,” Manmohan Singh had told Chatterjee then.
It is unlikely that either Chatterjee or Singh have had any peaceful nights over the past week.
For Singh, a loss in 22 July’s vote could mean the end of the road as Prime Minister.
For Chatterjee, the continued performance of his role as Speaker till that time could mean disciplinary action by his party.
Two people in the CPM who did not wish to be identified said that if Chatterjee sees the trust vote through, he will likely be issued a notice by the party asking him to explain his actions.
“The party is really a family. If your family needs you in a time of crisis and you don’t show up, then at least we have the right to ask you to explain,” added one of these members.
Only, Speakers are usually expected to be neutral and “as long as Chatterjee occupies the Speaker’s chair,” he has to be “non-partisan” said Mohammed Salim, a CPM representative in the Lok Sabha.
Managing that conflict should come easily to Chatterjee.
‘Outstanding Parliamentarian’