The Communist leaders in India do not like those of their leaders who have earned much popularity and stand qualified for higher positions. Jyoti Basu was disliked by the Communists when he was proposed as a candidate for the presidential elections. Somnath Chatterjee’s candidature for the presidential election was also discouraged.

Left provides very little room for dissension, which is quite funny considering the factional politics that’s going in its ranks in Kerala.

It is a pity that Indian democratic structure cannot tolerate issue-based disagreements. Party members are rarely allowed to go beyond the stance that the entire party has adopted. This is particularly sad because it leads to hardline stances and stymies.

Somnath Chatterji stood up to what he thought was for his duty and kudos to him for that. CPM did the expected and the unjust. But it could easily justify its actions.

Commies have always looked down upon dissent within their ranks.... just never thought they’d be so harsh on such a senior party member like Somnath Chatterji!!!

His performance as a speaker is unquestioningly superb, but it’s his own party that couldn’t see he was the best Parliamentarian of the year 2007. He didn’t resign his post, didn’t vote against the Government, and was simply thrown out of the party. Lalu Prasad Yadav has so rightly expressed his anger in his saying:

Left waalon ki mati maari gayi hai.

Left tyranny? You telling Somnath Chatterjee is a victim of Left tyranny? You are completely out of your senses mate. Somnath Chatterjee is a turncoat, and proved himself to be ungrateful and power hungry man with his defiance of his party's diktat. It is the CPI (M) that has made Somnath the leader that he is today.

I hate the commies myself. Can't stand them. But the way they booted out a senior leader for breaking party discipline shows that they might have it in them to discipline the otherwise truant Indian bureaucracy. Well done Karat and CPM.

Somnath deserved the kick on his butt by the commies. He should have seen it coming for he represented the same party that kicked him for decades. He still risked the humiliation thinking that seeing his elderly state and importance, the brutes would let him go. But alas! Those who live by the sword die by it.

The party is always greater than the individual. When you are defying the General Secretary of the Party and the wishes of the Politburo members, you should know that you would not be spared. Yet you did exactly that and now risk further humiliation should SP or the Congress offer you their membership or a party ticket.

The irony is that without the support of the communists, Somnath Chatterjee would have been a victim of the red cadres or the goons the communists have in their ranks in Bengal. He would have been beaten and thrashed. If he wanted to lead a peaceful life, at the most he would have been a school master or college lecturer. He chose to be a politician and the safest bet for him was to be a commie himself.

Tyranny my foot. He has disgraced his own party with his own behaviour. He got what he deserved. There cannot be a tear shed no matter how shocking or sad the sacking of Somnath was from the party. The party is always bigger than the individual that the imbecile forgot.

It was extremely shocking to see Somnath Mukherjee being given such a treatment by the Left. It is entirely possible that the CPI(M) could dare to do so because now most of the politburo members are not from West Bengal. They however forget one small thing, West Bengal is the bastion of the Marxists, not Kerala or Tripura or any other state.

Nice try by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to show that it is a party that keeps principles and discipline first and foremost before anything. But it was a total failure because by expelling Somnath Chatterji they have bitten more than they can chew. With Singur, Nandigram etc in Bengal, the Left can now kiss their power in West Bengal goodbye with this misadventure.

What do you mean by power hungry? Speaker’s power is just limited inside the parliament. Outside he doesn’t have any influence like the ministers.
And this phrase ”party’s diktat” itself is reminiscent of dictators like Stalin and Mao.

Commies also think that the party is above the nation.

Lot of people are talking about party being bigger than the individual. But they should also note that the nation and the constitution is above the parties, which is often ignored by the commies.

As far as their much adored ”discipline” and ”principles” are concerned, over discipline is not good for a democracy. It simply means forcing people to blindly follow certain rules shutting down their brain.

Disciplining the bureaucracy? Ha, ha, ha. We all know what kind of bureaucracy exists in West Bengal.

The party didn’t serve a notice to him first, listing the charges and asking for explanation. When the party has no rules to follow why talk about discipline?

Somnath Mukherjee???

Oh you are still a child. It’s ok then.

But Communists are supposed to be above regional sentiments. They are going to bite the dust in West Bengal in the coming days.

Communists lost their face with recent incidents. It is better we throw them out.