The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday said the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, had agreed to abide by the party's decision to resign from his post but later backed out.
Seeking to set the record straight on the controversy over Mr. Chatterjee's expulsion from the party — which resurfaced after excerpts of his forthcoming book appeared in the media last week — the CPI(M) Polit Bureau accused the former Speaker of making a “number of false assertions” in his book.
“The decision to take disciplinary action against Somnath Chatterjee was taken at a full Polit Bureau meeting held on July 19, 2008,” a statement by the Polit Bureau said.
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It also disputed Mr. Chatterjee's claim that the decision on disciplinary action against him was taken at a meeting attended by only five of the Polit Bureau's 17 members.
Giving a sequence of the events, the statement said the Polit Bureau decided to convey to Mr. Chatterjee once more the decision that he should forthwith resign from the Speakership and not preside over the Lok Sabha session on the trust vote.
It concluded that if he refused to do so, he should be expelled from the party as it would amount to helping the Congress-led government.
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The CPI(M) Central Committee, which met on July 20, was apprised of the situation and authorised the Polit Bureau to take disciplinary action against Mr. Chatterjee if he violated the decision.
“Somnath Chatterjee had, in a letter to the party dated July 9, 2008, agreed to abide by the decision of the party and resign from the post of the Speakership. He later backed out from this commitment to abide by the party decision,” the statement said.
Terming “unfortunate” the fact that Mr. Chatterjee sought to draw late leader Jyoti Basu's name into the matter, the CPI(M) said all the other views expressed by him were just “post-facto justifications of a person who defected to the ruling establishment.”