Party before Parliament: CPI(M) Expels Somnath

In an expected move (you can usually foresee what the Indian Communists would do) the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expelled the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party.

This move by the CPI(M) would only add to Somnath's aura. He has already won a lot of hearts by his non-partisan role as the Speaker especially the during the dramatic trust motion brought forward by the Prime Minstrer Manmohan Singh.

With their dadagiri days at the Centre over, the Left will have a lot of firefighting to do to rebuild their image and this action wasn't surely an image building exercise.

I personally hold some of leaders of the Left parties in high esteem because of their personal integrity and commitment for a cause (whatever they may be) and their ability to make sensible (and legible) arguments (though not always agreeable). But as a collection of individuals under the red flag I (and many fellow Indians) are fast losing whatever positive vibes that we had for them.

We have all heard (and also seen) gory tales of red goondagardi in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. Not that other parties don't resort to such tactics, but theirs is more organised and deadlier.

The idea of Communism (though it does sound very good) has faltered in execution as real life and human behaviour tend to be quite different from the ideas enclosed in books.

Seems like it is time for the comrades to pool in some change from their Rs 3200 per month allowance to purchase some packets of the MNC manufactured Vanish to back some of the lost colour of the red flag.