Column

The man who bore the brunt, at least physically, of last week’s DMK-Left fracas in the Lok Sabha, was poor Shivraj Patil.

He got a solid thwack across his face from fellow minister S Palanimanickam of the DMK.

It was accidental, of course, but the mild mannered home minister dissolved into panic and did the unthinkable.

He shouted for help from the Marshals. Actually, Palanimanickam had rushed to the front to rescue environment minister A Baalu when Left MPs descended on him to stop him from introducing a bill to shift the hub of maritime studies from Kolkata to Chennai.

Being a rather large and excitable man, he used his arms freely to push obstructionist MPs from his path. Patil, who was standing near Baalu, chose to push his face into the melee just as Palanimanickam thrust out his hand and the two connected in the most unfortunate manner possible.

Needless to say, the home minister was as stunned as the Left MPs by the turn of events which saw Marshals in action in the Lok Sabha for the first time in history.

It’s been a trying week for the CPI(M). First it was hammered for bad behaviour in Parliament and then for state oppression in Bengal.

Party MPs have been going around with a sheepish look on their faces, put there largely by the pasting they got from Somnath Chatterjee after the scrap with the DMK in the Lok Sabha.

Chatterjee, a CPI(M) MP admitted shamefacedly, scolded them as if they were errant schoolboys. The MP confessed they’ve never seen him so angry, not even when he was CPI(M) parliamentary leader and used to tick them off for unseemly antics in the House.

Chatterjee was so upset that he threw an emotional tantrum and threatened to resign from the post of Speaker.

He even dashed off a resignation letter and then telephoned Prakash Karat to announce his intention to quit.

What face did he have to admonish the BJP after the way CPI(M) MPs had behaved, he asked.

A panic-struck Karat rushed Sitaram Yechury to soothe Chatterjee. But the veteran parliamentarian only calmed down after Left MPs lined up in front of him and offered an abject apology.

More embarrassment was in store for the Left when party MPs trooped down to Jantar Mantar for a protest demonstration against the decision to set up a maritime university in Chennai.

Guess who they bumped into at the Capital’s one-stop spot for agitations? Long time Left sympathiser Sumit Sarkar, staging a dharna against the CPI(M) for the violent crackdown in Nandigram!

It’s not often that old friends meet as adversaries and it made for an awkward encounter. They didn’t know whether to acknowledge each other or turn away. Talk about biting the hand that feeds. Nothing hurts as much as brickbats from a former comrade.

Tailpiece

The PM’s telephone operators need a crash course in the nation’s Who’s Who list. They refused to put LK Advani through to Manmohan Singh when he rang up to express his distress over the police action in Nandigram.

And to add insult to injury, they fed the standard line to the Leader of the Opposition. Leave your name and number and we’ll get back to you! Advani hung up in stunned silence. Was this a thinly disguised message or sheer ignorance?

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net