New Delhi: Accusing Somnath Chatterjee of making "false assertions" in his forthcoming book in which he launched a scathing attack on General Secretary Prakash Karat, the CPI-M on Monday said the former Speaker had agreed to quit over the Indo-US nuclear deal issue but had backed out later.
"Somnath Chatterjee had earlier in a letter to the party dated July 9, 2008 agreed to abide by the decision of the party and resign from the post of Speakership. He later backed out from this commitment to abide by the party decision," CPI-M Politburo said in a statement.
Chatterjee had launched a vitriolic attack against Karat in his book saying that "disastrous" policies and "misguided" actions of the current leadership had resulted in the major debacle in the 2009 general elections.
"Thanks to the disastrous polices and misguided actions of the current leadership," the Leftist movement in the country has become "almost irrelevant", according to excerpts from the book titled: Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian'.
In the statement, the CPI-M maintained that all the views expressed by Chatterjee "are just post-facto justifications of a person who defected to the ruling establishment".
It said Chatterjee has made "a number of false assertions" and maintained that it was "totally wrong to say that five members of the Politburo decided to expel him the day after the trust vote session of the Lok Sabha was held".
Rebutting his charges that Karat and a few others had decided to expel him, the statement said a meeting of the full Politburo on July 19, 2008, had taken the decision to take disciplinary action against Chatterjee. The Left parties had then decided to withdraw support to the UPA-I government over the nuclear deal.
"The Politburo decided to convey to Somnath Chatterjee once more, the decision that he should forthwith resign from Speakership and not preside over the Lok Sabha session on the trust vote. The Politburo concluded that if he refused to do so, he should be expelled from the party as it would amount to helping the Congress-led government.
"The Central Committee of the party which met on July 20 was apprised of the situation and it authorised the Politburo to take disciplinary action against Chatterjee if he violated the decision," the statement said.
The Politburo also maintained that it was "unfortunate that Chatterjee has sought to draw Comrade Jyoti Basu''s name into this matter when he is no more". Karat had refused to respond to the accusations yesterday saying the party would react to the allegations made by the former Speaker.
The former Lok Sabha speaker on Monday refused to comment on CPI-M Politburo's charges and said he had nothing to say and advised patience till his memoirs were published.
"I have nothing to say. Please hold patience till my memoirs are published," Chatterjee told PTI when asked to comment on the politburo's reaction to his comments on party General Secretary Prakash Karat whom he held responsible for expelling him from the party.
The former speaker said "Let the book (Memoirs of a Parliamentarian) be published and let people read it and judge from their point of view."
Meanwhile, the Congress has ridiculed the CPI-M's charge against Chatterjee.
"The Left wants to live in a mind-controlled world where anyone who disagrees with them is deemed to be a defector," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said on Monday.
Chatterjee's book will be released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on August 21.
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