One doesn’t know what happens to Somnath Chatterjee from here. Even after his expulsion, he is constitutionally under no obligation to give up his office. After having battled so admirably with a Stalinist party structure, one would hope he stays on. He has expressed a desire not to continue in politics after next year; he must continue to adorn that chair which befits the stature he has acquired over the years.

Chatterjee has scored heavily in the past month simply by holding on, by being able to brave the onslaught of the party. He has demonstrated beyond doubt that he can take on apparatchiks and will, under no circumstances, mix his politics with his constitutional responsibilities. He has carefully stayed away from media glare and has avoided making unnecessary statements. He has not been drawn into any political discussions on his probable change in stance. It is quite possible that given the option, he would have actively pursued the Jyoti Basu line. He wouldn’t have been pushed easily into voting with the BJP.

The CPM decision to expel Chatterjee was too predictable. The party knew — as much as the nation knew — that the special session of the fourteenth Lok Sabha belonged not just to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It belonged also to a Bengali bhadralok who was equally firm and resolute, a man who had contested his first election as an Independent-backed by the CPM. Chatterjee told a group of journalists after the tumultuous trust vote how the late Promode Dasgupta had sent over two comrades to make him sign on a blank piece of paper. That was his initiation into the party. That signature made him a card-holder.

... contd.