Former speaker of Lok Sabha and CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee will be given a funeral with state honours, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday after paying respects to his mortal remains at a private hospital in Kolkata.
Ironically, it is yet unclear whether the central leadership of the CPI(M), Chatterjee's own former party, would come to pay respects to Chatterjee. Only general secretary Sitaram Yechury is scheduled to arrive in Kolkata to pay his respects.
Chatterjee, who was suffering from multiple organ failure, died on Monday morning at 8.30am after suffering three heart attacks since Sunday evening. The 89-year-old former CPI(M) leader had declared he wanted to donate his body to SSKM Hospital; Chatterjee's body would be handed over to hospital authorities later on Monday.
Chatterjee was expelled by the CPI(M) politburo because he refused to resign as speaker of Lok Sabha following CPI(M)'s withdrawal of support to the UPA government in 2008.
However on Monday, senior CPI(M) leaders in West Bengal thronged Chatterjee's house and the hospital where he died to see him for the last time. Former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who was instrumental in ousting Chatterjee from the party, is yet to make a statement after his death.
Yechury called Chatterjee a messiah of the working class and "defender of Constitution of India". Despite Chatterjee's ouster from the CPI(M), Yechury always maintained contact with him and often met him at his residences in Shantiniketan and Kolkata. Breaking all norms, Yechury made the CPI(M) politburo take a resolution to condole the death of Chatterjee, though he was an expelled leader.
The message of Chatterjee's death has not been conveyed to last chief minister of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is ailing. Bhattacharjee had been considered a very ardent acolyte of Chatterjee.
It was Chatterjee, who—when deputed by then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu as chairman of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation—streamlined the industrial policy of the state, which was taken forward by Bhattacharjee when he was chief minister. Chatterjee till his last days was a strong supporter of Bhattacharjee.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee said, "I have lost my personal friend and the nation has lost a great son." From President of India Ramnath Kovind to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, major political leaders condoled the death of Chatterjee and termed him as one of the greatest politicians and parliamentarians in India.
Chatterjee was a stringent critic of the BJP even at a time when the saffron party was not a force to reckon with in West Bengal.
Chatterjee had told this correspondent some time back, “Communists could not think of what would benefit them. Communists would have to gauge the impending threats to humanity and working class. Communal tone in Indian politics can destroy the country if it's allowed to grow."