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ShareKolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today hit out at CPI-M saying the charges it levelled against him were "a character assassination" and the current political culture of the present leadership made the party and Left politics "almost irrelevant".
In a hard-hitting statement issued here, Chatterjee, who was expelled from CPI-M, referred to a rejoinder published in CPI-M mouthpiece, People's Democracy recently accusing him of levelling baseless charges against the party and said that he was "amazed at the deliberate distortion of facts".
Chatterjee said he had never stated that "the Left had some foreknowledge that the 'cash-for-vote' row during trust motion would come up in Parliament and nor had he insinuated that there was some coordination between BJP and the Left in this matter.
"I get the impression that in its anxiety to justify its unfathomable decision which has brought the party to its present sorry state, the CPI-M has made a desperate effort to indulge in character assassination."
In the three-page statement, Chatterjee criticised the party leadership for forging a Third Front "with disparate elements with ridiculous assurance to its members that it would come to power and would provide opportunity to the party's general secretary even to head such a government."
Chatterjee said sections of supporters and members of CPI-M had extreme reservation about the efforts of the central leadership to cobble up a Third Front.
Recalling his long association with the the party, he said the rejoinder was a clear attempt to indulge in "deliberate falsehood, calumny and character assassination" to justify the party's untenable action against a member who had without self-interest been in state committee and Central committee.
Chatterjee said it was now well-known that large section of the party had not supported his arbitrary expulsion and claimed that he was still in touch with many members and active supporters of the CPI-M."I did not make any allegation against the party and admitted that it had the right to expel me. There was no occasion for me to ask for a review of the same or to file an appeal," he said.
"I had hoped that the party leadership at the highest level would do some introspection
on why it's facing such serious erosion of popular support," Chatterjee said. He said his expulsion exposed not only the intolerance shown by the present party leadership, but also its wrong understanding of Speaker's role in a parliamentary democracy.
"If the party leaders had proofs that hundreds of crores of rupees were spent to purchase MPs belonging to the Opposition, then it was the duty of the party to disclose the facts before the nation. I had not condoned any act of impropriety," Chatterjee said.
He said that the present CPI-M leadership had a "guilt conscience because of its abysmal failure in conducting the affairs of the party and is now trying to find excuses for its total rejection even by the common people."
