Disciplined Speaker : Somnath Chatterjee
When Mr Somnath Chatterjee was a boy, he often visited a gentleman living in his neighbourhood. Mr Chatterjee called him “Kaku” - uncle. Both Chatterjee's and the gentleman's families were high class Bengali Brahmins, the latter being Mookerjee. Therefore the rapport between the two families was excellent – to say the least.
Bengalis, and Bengali Brahmins in particular, are politically very conscious from the very childhood.
So if the two, Kaku and Mr Chatterjee, discussed politics, it was not unusual.
Much, much later, even before Mr Chatterjee assumed charge as Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Chatterjee said that he and Kaku discussed everything under the sun. “Our two families were very close. We shared all our sentiments and problems.”
But politics was not one of the planks they shared. Mr Mookerjee was none other than Mr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who later established Jana Sangh, mother of Bharatiya Janata Party, and was the one-man opposition to Mr Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, whom nobody dared offend..
Mr Chatterjee said he had to go for his law education to England and, therefore, he lost touch with Mr Mookerjee. Although Mr Chatterjee chose the Left as his political ground – obviously keeping in mind the realities of his home State – one cannot but assume that there is an iota of Mr Mookerjee's thinking in him.
Anyway, this story is not about his being influenced by Mr Mookerjee or not. The story is about Mr Chatterjee himself : an upright disciplined person, taking no nonsense from anybody and speaking his mind without fear or favour.
One watched him on TV, handling the biggest Lok Sabha scam of political buying of Members of Parliament by one party or the other and putting every one in his place. He was annoyed when honourable members crowded his staff and disturbed them from counting no-trust votes.
He would say repeatedly : “Don't disturb my staff.Go to your seats. You will be told about the result after the count.”
But honourable members being honourable would not listen to him. They would crane their necks to see how the staff was counting the votes. How the “ayes” and “nos” votes were being bundled separately, etc.
Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, the irrepressible Railway Minister, was seen making threatening gestures against the staff – maybe he was telling them, “Beware ! I can make your life miserable !” Or whatever.
The media had already accused Mr Yadav of selling Cabinet posts to his cronies.
But there were other honourable members : some of whom were caught for trafficking in human beings (read women); some landed in trouble for violating foreign exchange rules; some were in jail for murder and other mayhem. (One of them was so cocksure that he said the Government cannot keep him in jail for ever. He is still in jail.)
To all of them Mr Chatterjee's farewell greetings were : “I wish all of you lose elections and don't come back to Lok Sabha. You have wasted public funds and you don't deserve another innings in Lok Sabha.”
What else can we do ? But say “amen” to Mr Chatterjee's farewell greetings.
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