Somnath Chatterjee played an important role in defending the foundations of the Constitution, particularly its secular democratic and federal values. All through his parliamentary career, he used to be the voice of the oppressed people. In Parliament, his spirited defence of the Constitution during the Emergency remains the highlight. As the Lok Sabha Speaker, he upheld the right of dissent.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha for 10 times with just one break in 1984.
As a legal professional, he played a big role in taking the matter of victimisation of the working class, particularly during the railway strike. His absence now more than ever is felt when without a formal announcement of Emergency, we are living under similar circumstances and the constitutional guarantees of equality are being undermined.
He has an impeccable record in terms of parliamentary practices. Many of his rulings are actually relied upon till today. His contribution in fine tuning the parliamentary procedures will always be remembered. Especially in today’s times when the government indiscriminately tables important bills as Money Bills to bypass the Rajya Sabha. He would not have let the government smuggle in important extraneous legislation within the financial Bill, like the Narendra Modi government did with the electoral bonds.
His absence will be felt more strongly today when there is absolute anarchy with the mobs running amok under the guise of gau-rakshaks . My own association with Somnath- da spans four decades. He used to be the voice of JNU students’ union in Parliament. We would go to him with whatever issues we wanted to be raised in the House. We worked closely together during the formation of a government of secular forces in 1996 and the UPA in 2004. In his death, we lost a champion of democracy and democratic rights. I convey our deepest condolences to his wife and children.
As told to Sobhana K. Nair
