Death Of A statesman

In Indian politics, there are politicians and then there are statesmen. Somnath Chatterjee, who was associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) till 2008 was a celebrated parliamentarian and statesman who rose above paltry political differences and commanded respect even from his staunchest adversaries. Bengal lost one of its best parliamentarians as Chatterjee passed away early in the morning in a private nursing home in Kolkata on August 13, 2018.

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As the Speaker of Lok Sabha (2004-2009) Chatterjee stood for values like reason, integrity, secularity and sobriety that are fast obliterating for Indian politics. He was probably the last exponent of a generation of Bengali politicians like Bidhan Chandra Roy and Jyoti Basu who commanded universal respect. Chatterjee was one of those rare breed of politicians who could rise above his own sectoral and political interests when the situation demanded. Coming from a family of jurists, he became attached to the CPI (M) in 1968 and in doing so, moved away from the political ideology of his father, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee, who was the president of All India Hindu Mahasabha.