Former lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away on Monday following a second heart attack within two days. He was suffering from old-age related ailments and was admitted to a south Kolkata hospital last Tuesday. He was undergoing dialysis and was put on ventilator following a massive heart attack couple of days ago.
He was 89 and is survived by his wife, Renu Chatterjee, daughter Anushila and son Pratap Chatterjee.
A renowned advocate of the Supreme Court and a veteran Marxist, Chatterjee had been out of politics for the past several years, particularly after his term ended in 2009. His differences with then CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat over discharging his constitutional duties as the Speaker of the lok Sabha had led to his ouster from the party.
Top politicians, including President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed their grief at the demise of “India’s ideologically most mature leader who could successfully differentiate between his national, Constitutional obligations and ideological issues.”
Expressing his “anguish” Modi said, Somnath Chatterjee “made our parliamentary democracy richer and was a strong voice for well-being of the poor and vulnerable.
lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to flew in from Delhi to pay her respects to the departed soul.
Mamata Banerjee who rose in politics for the first time by defeating Chatterjee — the only defeat he faced in his life — in 1984 from Jadavpur not only expressed her condolences but also supervised his last journey from the hospital to his house and then to the SSKM Hospital where his corpse would be donated for medical research a la his political guru Jyoti Basu.
“Though we had different ideological beliefs, our personal relation was very cordial and he bestowed his affection on me. I visited his house several times. I express my condolences to his wife and the whole family at this hour of grief,” Banerjee said. Former President Pranab Mukherjee said he “lost a friend.”
In the evening, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury arrived at Chatterjee’s residence along with a large number of CPI(M) leaders.
“He perhaps died a sad man, never being able to forget his dissociation from the party that he served and the ideology he believed in for 50 years. I still remember the day when he was expelled from the party after his historic decision as a Speaker in 2008. He was sitting in his ante-chamber. He asked me about the news.
“I told him what had happened. He would not utter a word. But only tear would roll down his eyes as he sat silently looking nowhere,” said daughter Anushila refusing to believe that her father was no more.
Born at Tejpur in Assam in 1929, Chatterjee was educated at Mitra Institution in British Calcutta and then at the prestigious Presidency College. Thereafter he went to london to study law. In 1968 he joined the CPI(M) and became an MP in 1971. He was reelected from Bolpur-Shantiniketan in 1989 and remained an MP till 2009 where after he never contested an election.
“The party is far bigger than I am. They may not need me. But I will firmly believe in Marxism which is my ideology. Yes! The pain of that episode (his expulsion in 2008 for not following the Karat line) will remain till I am no more,” he once told this reporter.
He had been expelled from the CPI(M) for refusing to resign as the Speaker — which would have created a constitutional crisis — (reportedly at the behest of Jyoti Basu who asked him to go by the Constitution) after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I.