All of them had a unanimous opinion — Chatterjee’s expulsion from the CPI(M) is an internal matter of the party
KOLKATA: Lok Sabha speaker, Somnath Chatterjee’s expulsion from the CPI(M) has not marred his image as the long-time Lok Sabha member from Bolpur constituency, which includes Shantiniketan of Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore-founded Vishwabharati University.
Locals from the Bolpur-Shantiniketan, still fondly remember Chatterjee as a dedicated and honest MP who did not compromise when it came to developing the area under his constitutional jurisdiction.
DNA spoke to a cross section of people, who have been observing Chatterjee closely. All of them had a unanimous opinion — Chatterjee’s expulsion from the CPI(M) is an internal matter of the party. But this event cannot downplay his dynamic role as a local MP or as the Lok Sabha speaker.
On Thursday, a day before Chatterjee’s 79th birthday (on Friday), a group of students and professors from the Vishwabharati University carried out a silent procession followed by a programme to compliment the roles played by Chatterjee - first, as an MP and then, as the Lok Sabha speaker.
K Bhattacharjee, the representative of the university’s teachers’ association, said, “His ability as the Lok Sabha speaker and the way he steered the parliament during the trust vote is simply unparallel. His love for the country and the people is beyond question. He is the true pride of Bolpur and the Bengalis.”
Also, in a recent survey conducted by the Union government regarding the performance of all the Lok Sabha MPs throughout India had Chatterjee topping the West Bengal list of 42 state MPs on the proper utilization of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development fund. Dawa Narbula, the Congress MP from Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency fared the poorest in the list.
Renowned radio anchor, K Chaudhuri says that in terms of local area development and as an MP, Chatterjee has always been above party lines.
“Not a single resident of Shantiniketan can allege that Chatterjee has showered favours as an MP only to his own or his party’s confidants. His expulsion from the party was the internal decision of CPI(M) and I am no one to question that. But all I can say is that in Chatterjee I have found a dedicated MP, who sees above party affiliation when it comes to the development of his area concerned,” Chaudhuri said.
According to a senior CPI(M) member from the Birbhum district committee, although Chatterjee was a frequent visitor of Bolpur, he spent very little time in the party offices. He rarely took any initiative in the local party administration.
“I cannot deny the popularity of Somanthda among the local residents. But his links with the local party administration was almost nil. We rarely found him in any of the party’s programmes, even when he was present in Bolpur,” he said.
r_sumanta@dnaindia.net
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