CPI-M 'rattled, can't think soberly': Somnath
Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee has said the CPI-M, the party which expelled him, is “rattled” by its defeat in elections and is “unable to think soberly”.
Chatterjee was speaking to CNN-IBN's Sougata Mukhopadhyay when he rejected the CPI-M's (Communist Party of India-Marxist) allegation that he made “false assertions” in his forthcoming memoirs Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian.
The CPI-M expelled Chatterjee, a veteran parliamentarian, in July 2008 after he refused to resign as Lok Sabha Speaker. “The problem is the people who have made this accusation about what is contained in the book, I am sure they have not read the book,” he said. “Therefore, either on the basis of ignorance or guilty conscience they have responded in this manner. I can only sympathise with them--they are too rattled by events that are taking place to be able to think soberly.”
Chatterjee said his “self-respect” had been hurt because of the new accusations the CPI-M politburo had made against him. “Naturally, if somebody calls you a liar your self-respect will be hurt. But I have said that this is all canard; they have indulged in the most despicable type of inexactitude. They don't have the patience to find out what is actually written,” he said.
“If I say something I had heard about it, I have not asserted the truth of it. To put that in my mouth as if it is my statement and then abuse me in that manner, then I can only sympathise. I can understand why the present predicament of the party is.”
Chatterjee said the CPI-M's claim that he had agreed to resign as Speaker but later backtracked was “wrong and half truth”.
The CPI-M on Monday rejected Chatterjee's allegations against the party in his book. "Somnath Chatterjee had earlier in a letter to the party dated August 9, 2008 agreed to abide by the decision of the party and resign from the post. He later backed out from this commitment to abide by the decision," it said in a statement.
"All the other views expressed by him are just post-facto justifications of a person who defected to the ruling establishment," it said.
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