CPM censures Subhas, will deal with Somnath later

New Delhi, July 20 Keen to shift focus from the Somnath Chatterjee fiasco ahead of the trust vote, the CPM on Sunday decided to deal with him later but made it clear that his defiance would not go unnoticed as it publicly censured West Bengal leader Subhas Chakraborty for raising the same concerns as the Lok Sabha Speaker did.

The CPM Central Committee censured Chakraborty, a West Bengal State Secretariat member, for making statements “challenging the party line” and told him to “conform” to the norms of the party. He had openly expressed his unhappiness with the idea of party MPs voting alongside those of the BJP in the trust vote on July 22.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said Chakraborty attracted censure for his comments on voting in the trial of strength. Chatterjee had also reportedly cited his inability to vote with the BJP as the main reason for his decision not to step down before the crucial trial of strength, leaving the party red-faced.

The Central Committee, which met here over the past two days, discussed the Chatterjee issue but felt that it was not the right time to act against him. “The Central Committee has said that the Politburo should deal with the issue whenever appropriate and however appropriate,” Karat said.

Chatterjee, a party MP, has refused to resign despite the party making it clear to him that he should do so. His name was also included in the list of MPs who had withdrawn support to the Government and Karat had said that he expected the Speaker to take a decision taking in account the circumstances, a clear signal that he should leave office.

“Now that he (Chatterjee) is not resigning, we will see what to do after the trust vote. The immediate focus is the trust vote,” a senior Politburo member told The Indian Express when asked why Chakraborty was censured for challenging the party line while the Speaker was not touched.

As far as Chakraborty is concerned, though it was sure that the Central Committee would take a serious note of his dissenting in public, that too at a time when the party is finding it hard to convince its rank and file its decision to vote along with the BJP, the censure came as a bit of surprise since he had apologised for his comments.

With Chakraborty’s comments triggering a wave of similar reactions in the party, the central leadership had asked its West Bengal unit to seek an explanation from the state Transport Minister.

He duly apologised and state secretary Biman Bose had said that “if someone admits one’s mistake, what is there to be done,” when asked whether the CPM leadership would take action against him.