In what actually tantamounts to a farce, the Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty has written to the state CPI (M) regretting having talked to the media on the party line and the party brass. However, it is clear he has not changed his stance.

CPI (M) state secretary Biman Bose told the media that the minister had explained his position and said that he made a mistake by speaking outside the party fold. Chakraborty was to be censured at the secretariat meeting on Friday (July 18).


Marxist icon Basu did the same thing when he publicly demanded that his protégé Subhas Chakraborty be inducted to the central committee and the state committee after the transport minister was not included during the Coimbatore Party Congress. The nonagenarian leader, however, soon after talking to the media, apologised and said that he ought not to have expressed his views outside the party forum. Basu had told the transport minister on Wednesday (July 16) that he should not have publicised his view on party affairs to the media. The veteran leader advised him to express regret.

The transport minister had made it clear to reporters that he did not fancy the idea of voting against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government alongside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He had also blamed party general secretary Prakash Karat of creating a situation where party MPs would have no option but to vote with the BJP to topple the government at the Centre. He had gone on to say that the CPI (M) would have to explain this to the people for a long time to come. He had recalled that the party at the Coimbatore Party Congress had endorsed the decision to keep the “communal BJP” at bay and away from power at the Centre.


On this he seemed to be saying the same thing that the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said, but in writing to Karat. The minister had also expressed his intention of writing to Karat and asking for a clarification on the line that the party had adopted. To push things further, he had also slammed the beleaguered party leadership for pressurising the Speaker to resign without taking into consideration the sanctity of the Speaker’s chair.


Interestingly, despite regretting having aired his views to the media, the ebullient minister did not seem to have shifted from his instance for he said “there is no new opinion on the matter.” The state party of course feels that the minister is entitled to his view but that ought to have been expressed in the party forum, not outside. The party central committee had written to the state committee asking for an explanation for Chakraborty’s comments in the media.


For the moment the Chakraborty chapter seems to be closed.