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New Delhi: Though a high-profile figure in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has always been somewhat of an "outsider" in the party, at least on occasions when decisions of the party high command needed compliance without a demur. The nuclear row with the United States has shown the "outsider" in another light: a "rebel".
Chatterjee turned a deaf ear to his party's repeated counsels not to preside over the two-day special session of parliament that began yesterday to decide the fate of the Manmohan Singh government. He even seems to have reconciled himself to any "disciplinary" action the party could bring against him.
CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury has indicated the party central committee will take action at "an appropriate time".
"We do not want the speaker's office to be involved in a controversy now. But a decision will be taken at an appropriate time," Yechury said.
Chatterjee's defiance flew in the face of CPM general secretary Prakash Karat - the man who has brought the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to its knees. His ideological position that he will not vote with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the Manmohan Singh government has added to the CPM's discomfiture.
Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan concedes Chatterjee's argument that the speaker's office is above partisan considerations. "He does have a point. It is wrong to force him to take a decision," said Bardhan.
CPM insiders say Chatterjee is being "individualistic". They say the Cambridge-trained barrister belonged to the lot of "successful middle-class professionals" who signed up with the CPM but never made that transition to become a disciplined soldier" of the party.
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