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CPI(M) suffers ignominy, its Punjab
head kicked out in sexual harassment case
WSN Bureau
 CHANDIGARH:
Years after fellow comrades and sterling men of ideology, commitment
and personal integrity consistently accused Punjab CPI(M) chief Prof
Balwant Singh of sundry charges including moral turpitude,
internecine conspiracies and utterly dumb conduct, top leaders of
India's largest Leftist party led by its chief Prakash Karat had to
finally suffer the ignominy of conceding that the state secretary of
CPI(M) was guilty of gross moral mis-conduct and was sexually
harassing the widow of a party worker.
The man who was
put to such shame was also a member of the Central Committee of the
CPI(M), a party that labels itself as wedded to politics in its
highest form and away from the pecuniary-gains-first style of Indian
politics.
Prakash Karat,
Nilotpal Basu and S.R.Pillai read out the order of suspension of
Balwant Singh, a blot on the ideology and party, in the presence of
members of the party's state committee and district secretariat
members. Karat said he wanted to be harsher but just thought he
will give a chance to Balwant Singh to explain his part. Party
sources said Balwant is not likely to face the leadership since his
conduct has been too gross.
Balwant Singh
also stands simultaneously kicked out of the Punjabi-language CPI(M)
mouthpiece newspaper Desh Sewak of which he was the Managing
Director. He was also shown the door from CITU, a major trade union.
Balwant was vice president of Punjab CITU.
Top Left leaders
in
Punjab, many of them now marginalized, say it was surprising that it
took the party so many years to kick out a man who was widely known
for his brash, authoritarian ways and brought the party to utter
ruins in the state. He was openly seen and spoken of as the protégé
of Harkishen Singh Surjeet who protected and defended him against
evidence that was too blatant and often shamefully gross.
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Balwant Singh was openly seen and spoken of as the protégé of
Harkishen Singh Surjeet who protected and defended him against
evidence that was too blatant and often shamefully gross. |
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A whole range of
leaders either left the party or were shunted out. These included
Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, Tarsem Jodhan, Mangat Ram Pasla,
Chandrashekhar and scores of others who protested against Balwant
Singh's waywardness and were shown the door one by one.
At one stage,
journalists in Desh Sewak had to resort to protest sit-ins to force
the powers-that-be to see Balwant Singh for the kind of person that
he was, and the way he was running the newspaper and the
organization, but later the protesters had to suffer for speaking
out. Among these were Sushil Dosanjh, Shabdish and many others.
Balwant Singh is
presently abroad.
In the latest
instance, Balwant Singh was accused of sexually harassing a widow of
a party leader of Sangrur. The incident happened in the first week
of September and Prakash Karat was personally informed of it by the
victim.
Controversy
about how Balwant Singh managed to get huge funds for Desh Sewak
have hounded the paper for years but thanks to the patronage that he
got from the late Surjeet, Balwant always got away with his blatant
ways.
Balwant's
conduct was already under a lens and a panel comprising Brinda
Karat, Nilotpal Basu and S.R. Pillai had been probing some charges.
Meanwhile,
senior CPI(M) Punjab leader and state committee member Charan Singh
Virdi has been named as acting secretary of the state unit.
17 October 2008
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