Most senior functionaries either take up a cushy post-retirement posting or just fade away. Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee is doing neither.
Most senior functionaries either take up a cushy post-retirement posting or just fade away. Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee is doing neither. He is a busy man these days, giving finishing touches to his 350-page memoir, which should hit the stands early next year. The 80-year-old Chatterjee politely declined the government’s idea of awarding him the Padma Bhushan while he was in office. “Speaker cannot receive an award from the executive,” he said.
Subsequently, he also turned down an offer to take up a gubernatorial posting, including that of Maharashtra, or a diplomatic posting of his choice abroad. “It was very kind of them to offer, but I don’t believe that as a former Speaker I’m automatically entitled to these things,” says Somnath Chatterjee.
He did consider finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s suggestion to head a commission to bring some clarity on the issue of privileges. In the absence of any real codification, there is still a lot of ambiguity.
“The courts still refer to the House of Commons on such issues,” the former Speaker said. The government has not got back to him on the terms of reference of the commission. Hence, there has been no further movement on that front.
The former Speaker is currently in New Delhi, spending time with his grandchildren and catching up with old friends, but surprisingly for a person who spent 39 years in the capital as a parliamentarian, Chatterjee says he does not miss the hustle and bustle of Delhi or the cut and thrust of parliament. He also denied that the ruling combine offered to nominate him to the Rajya Sabha “My innings is over, I have had no contact with any government functionary or minister,” Chatterjee said.
The former Speaker spends most of his time at the house he has built for himself near Shantiniketan. “It’s a small house. We are building it bit by bit,” he says. Chatterjee says he has few regrets, but the bitter parting with his parent party still hurts. “It was the saddest thing to have happened after the death of my parents,” he says.
Chatterjee is also brutally frank about the plight of his party. “Thanks to some individuals, the Left has become irrelevant in politics, the most independent and secular force in the country has become extremely weak,” he says ruefully.
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