Speaker's Marxist agenda: Udayan Namboodiri

Speaker's Marxist agenda: Udayan Namboodiri

Lookback: Udayan Namboodiri (May 10, 2008, Pioneer)

EMS Namboodiripad admitted loud and clear that Communists had joined the Indian parliamentary democratic mainstream to destroy it from within. This week, Somnath Chatterjee reminded us of that 51-year-old unfinished agenda

From the Constitutional point of view, this week will be recalled for long as one that witnessed unprecedented undermining of the image of Parliament -- at the hands of its masters. For starters, the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die a full week ahead of schedule for no reason other than the Speaker's injured sense of himself after failing to "discipline" Opposition members for daring to express the collective frustration of the people with rising prices.



Spare us your chagrin

Subhash Kashyap

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's act of adjourning the House sine die this week will live long in infamy

India's parliamentary history touched a new low when Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the Lok Sabha sine die on Monday, full seven days ahead of the scheduled end of the two-part Budget session. For some time now, Mr Chatterjee's attitude towards the members, particularly those of the Opposition parties, has been noted as objectionable and his remarks and vindictive acts perceived as crossing the line. But when he terminated the Budget session prematurely this week without ascribing reason, it became necessary to get curious as to the reasons behind his extraordinary hurry.



In Bengal, a Commie first and Speaker later

The other voice: Sobhandeb Chattopadhyaya | MLA, West Bengal

To understand Somnath Chatterjee's authoritarianism better, it is necessary to recognise that Indian Communists are into parliamentary democracy only to destroy it from within -- a line first articulated by Namboodiripad and upheld for nearly 30 years by HA Halim in the West Bengal Assembly

It may be not be prudent on my part to pass judgements on the Lok Sabha Speaker -- howsoever unconstitutional may have been the nature of his recent acts. It is 'Constitutionally sensible' not to raise an issue that is reportedly resolved, particularly after it has raised so much ruckus in the past few days. But, going by reports, I am tempted to draw a parallel with whatever has been going on in the West Bengal Assembly for the past couple of decades. If India at large is today suffering under the yoke of a Communist Speaker, then I leave it to the imagination of all Indians what we have been enduring under a despotic presiding officer who has little respect for rules and less for decorum.

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