Former Speaker of Lok Sabh, Somnath Chatterjee, talks about the state of Indian politics

One comrade had said that Manmohan Singh will get up when we ask him to get up, he must sit down when we ask him to. There is no generation gap in CPM.But they have their own ideas about their own importance, about their thinking or their inevitably being right, says Somnath Chatterjee to Shekhar Gupta.

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Excerpts:

Shekhar Gupta: My guest this week is a titan of Indian politics, Mr Somnath Chatterjee. Congratulations for your forthcoming book, Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian.

Somnath Chatterjee: You know I have been a member of the Lok Sabha 10 times. So many things have happened, I have met so many people and I have delivered over 500 major speeches.

So you did become a Communist at heart.

Well, I became and I still am, though I may not meet all the requirements that probably a hardcore Communist feels I should have.

Such as?

You have rubbed shoulders with so many great Communist leaders. Name some of the leaders who influenced you the most.

Jyoti Basu, Pramod Dasgupta, Benoy Chowdhury, Hare Krishna Konar, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, EMS (EMS Namboodiripad) and AKG (A K Gopalan). They all influenced me a lot. AKG was a perfect Communist leader.

On the nuclear deal, you have written that you were closer to the Left. But you didn’t feel so strongly that you would pull down the government for this?

It was not in my authority to pull down but I felt that the party should consider the situation. The (nuclear) agreement had not been entered into. Just because they had gone to Vienna or IAEA for discussion, they thought enough is enough.

But you also say in the book that the proximity (CPM leaders) had with the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi gave them an exaggerated sense of their image.

Yes, because they came to realise that their ‘yes’ was essential for the government to take a decision, their ‘no’ was enough to put it in cold storage. Somebody had said—I am not naming that very important comrade—that Manmohan Singh will get up when we ask him to get up, he must sit down when we ask him to. What is the mentality behind it?

Did the CPM suffer from a generation gap with suddenly much younger leaders coming in?

No, I don’t think there should be any generation gap. But they have their own ideas about their own importance, about their thinking or their inevitably being right.

In the book, you talk about what you describe as the ‘other big mistake’, of trying to form a third front coalition with Mayawati, Mulayam Singh and others.

It was disastrous. It was a comic attempt.

And Mayawati as the likely prime minister?

One of the Left leaders said she was the fittest candidate to be the Prime Minister.

And that was a blunder?

I think that was contrary to the CPM’s political formulation, ideas and understanding. You can’t just join anybody and everybody.

Do you think you would have made a good President?

I don’t know. Probably I would have made a mess of it, that is why I was not allowed.

But was it ever explained to you why that nod was not given?

No. He came and said we have decided not to suggest any candidate for President. That was fair enough. I asked him, ‘Why have you come to me? Have I told you to make me President? Have I told anybody in this world?’ This upsets me, this type of insinuation.

But you are a political analyst. Can you guess or analyse why the nod was not given?

I don’t know. I don’t want to bring it up because it concerns me.

So that is not something that rankles you?

Not at all. What rankles me is not giving me a show-cause (notice) and that my people have been let down. The people who built up the party... the party workers.