O J’s Corner

Left’s idiosyncracies are their follies

The Left wanted not a major portion of the cake, but the whole of the cake. That proved to be their unbecoming vis-à-vis the Dr Manmohan Singh Government it had propped up for four years and two months. The principle of sharing is the cornerstone of coalition governance. But the Left had always wanted Dr Manmohan Singh to do their bidding.

Forget about the treatment meted out to Dr Manmohan Singh, CPM’s approach to dealing with its own Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was overbearing. It should not have included the Speaker’s name in the list submitted to the President about withdrawal of support. I can understand the party asking Somnath Chatterjee to resign. But I feel enlisting the Speaker, before his resignation, among the supporters who would topple the government was too much.

The party decimated the personal glory of Somnath Chatterjee at one stroke.In the CPM, personal glory is confined to one person, the so-called leader at the helm of affairs. Others are only shouters of aye. There can be no nays, against the wishes of the party supremo.

However, one can see a streak in the behaviour of the many persons who held the post of the Speaker. In the Lok Sabha they have a special place, over and above the Constitutional slot. The special status is in the minds of the members and the party leaders, conferring on him some sort of an infallible persona. That is very much essential for the safe upkeep of the institution of Parliament. Members should obey the incumbent, otherwise there would be total confusion. When the incumbent enjoys this supremacy, he should not think that he is the Creator.

P A Sangma was an efficient Speaker, but the dimensions of personal glory had defeated him. One fine morning, he thought it unfit to obey his party leader Sonia Gandhi. Short-cuts taken, in association with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, only proved to be unworkable. There can be no personal glory in isolation.

Somnath Chatterjee is a good person, a man of culture, endowed with intelligence and erudition. I feel he should have gone out of his way to settle the issues with the party, way before the list was submitted to the President. Letter-writing was not enough.

The awkward scenario that ensued after the party expelled him would haunt Prakash Karat in many ways. The party is no more an uninkerable monolith.