Please think of the country: Somnath

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has called upon all intelligent and articulate young people not to repeat what a bright young woman had told him decades ago: "I would want to be anything but a politician." "Please think of the country. Nothing is more important," Chatterjee advised the new generation, making a pitch to them to get active in politics.

He was speaking after the release of his book, Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian (HarperCollins India), by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in Delhi on Saturday, August 21 evening.

Chatterjee did not disappoint the capacity audience, which included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Speaking on his relations with the CPM, which had expelled him from the party after he had refused to toe its line on the confidence motion tabled by the government in the last Lok Sabha, he said: " I thank the CPM for making me their candidate in 11 elections.

But when the party found that I had become unsuitable, I never questioned them, I never filed an appeal to review ( the decision)." The Prime Minister, in his speech, acknowledged the grace with which Chatterjee scripted his political journey.

Full report here India Today