Lok Sabha had the high of constructive debates on issues such as nuclear deal, and, the low of waving of currency notes during the trust vote last year. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also remained in the center stage........ be it the expulsion of 13 MPs in the cash-for-query scam or the stand off between the legislature and the judiciary.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee carved a niche for himself in his role as the Speaker. His style of functioning might not have been very popular among all MPs, the avuncular Chatterjee did definitely try to change the style in which the Lok Sabha works.
He was also targeted by his own party, the CPM, during the trust vote and pressurized him to resign from the post.Though he was expelled from the party, but there was no bitterness in him.

Chatterjee, fondly called ‘Somnath da’, was often criticized by the opposition parties for playing to the gallery. The BJP MPs once protested against what they called the ‘partisan’ approach of the Speaker by keeping mum in the house. Parties charged him with acting more like a ‘headmaster’....... and when Chatterjee could not check his anger, hewished that all the erring MPs lose their elections.

Somnath’s tenure has definitely set a mark for himself in the history of parliamentary democracy in India.