SOMNATH CHATTERJEE (25
July 1929, 13 August 2018)
Sri
Somnath Chatterjee was admitted at Belle Vue Clinic, Kolkata last Tuesday
following a kidney related ailment. On Sunday, he suffered a heart attack and
was put on ventilator support. “He passed away at 8.15 am on today due to
multi-organ failure,” said Pradip Tandon, CEO of Belle Vue Clinic. The
89-year-old was earlier admitted to the nursing home on June 25 after suffering
a haemorrhagic stroke.
Somnath
Chatterjee born in Tezpur, Assam State, but he grew up in Kolkata. His father,
Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, was a lawyer, jurist, and parliamentarian who was a
prominent member of the Hindu Mahasabha. The younger Chatterjee attended the
University of Calcutta, after which he continued his schooling in England,
earning a Master’s Degree at the
University of Cambridge and a law degree from Middle Temple (one of the
Inns of Court) in London. Returning to India, he pursued a legal career that
included work as a barrister at the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court
of India.
Chatterjee
joined the CPI (M) in 1968. He first ran for office in 1971, winning the seat
in a Lok Sabha Constituency in West Bengal. He continued to be
reelected from Burdwan, Jadavpur and Bolpur.
Although he lost in the 1984 contest to Mamata Banerjee of the
Congress, he won a by-election for a different seat the following year. He became
a widely respected member of parliament, known for his many
eloquent speeches, and was honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian
Award in 1996. After he was unanimously elected as the speaker of the Lok Sabha
in June 2004, Chatterjee attempted to streamline the functioning of the house
and improve the conduct of its members. He soon inaugurated limited live
telecasts of the chamber’s proceedings, which increased to 24-hour television
coverage in July 2006.
A ten-time Lok Sabha member from
1971 to 2009, Chatterjee, has been on
ventilator support in a city-based private hospital since August 10 and is also
on dialysis.
The long-time Communist Party of
India (Marxist) leader was the speaker of 14th Lok Sabha (2004-2009)
when the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-I was in power. However, he was expelled from
the party in 2008 when he refused to resign as speaker after CPI (M) and other
left parties withdrew support to the government over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
His son Pratap Chatterjee is a
high-profile lawyer in the Calcutta High Court. He also has two daughters,
Anuradha and Anushila, the latter being a renowned dance professional.
AILRSA
and Somnath Chatterjee:
After 1981 strike of Loco Running Staff around 950 workers were removed from
service by imposing 14/2 and article 311, ie. Without enquiry, 500 were
compulsory retired, around 1000 reverted, break in service was imposed on 7000
Loco men. This strike was failed due to poor preparation and leg pulling by a
section of leadership. For every victory hundred number of claiming will be
there but for defeat no one will take responsibility. Some of the leaders
blamed Com. SK. Dhar for the failure of strike.
Some revisionist leaders left the
organization blaming Dhar and it was com. Dhar’s responsibility to bring back
the removed employees back to service. He left with empty cash balance,
abandoned trade union and fearing work force. He then approached Com.
Somnath Chatterjee, CPI (M) leader. With Somnath’s letter he met leading
Supreme Court Advocate KK Venugopal. At that time his consulting fee was
Rs.35000/-. But Sri.Venugopal told “my consulting fee is Sri. Somnath’s
letter”. His case fee was 105000/- . But Dhar was only able to collect
47000/- in many installments. Even then Adv. Venugopal fought the case and
succeeded. The Railway authorities not utilized the 14/2 and article 311 after
that incident. This was a unique achievement.
If such a strong support was not
extended by Com Somnath Chatterjee, it was very difficult to came out of the
crisis.
RED
SALUTE .
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