The news came in the early afternoon. A friend had rung up. My TV is out of operation for quite a while. In the evening, another friend rung up to talk of.
It was a long and no doubt a distinguished career in the conventional sense of the term. He was by far the longest-serving Chief Minister in India. Only Gegong Apang of Arunnachal Pradesh has a somewhat comparable record. But then, Arunachal is not counted amongst the major states of India. In 1996, his name was proposed as the Indian Prime Minister by the combined anti-Congress - anti-BJP opposition and forcefully pursued. To the horror of many - just not the foes, but also friends. In fact, after an intense tussle, the Party, of which he was the Polit Buro (the highest rung of leadership) member rejected the proposal, despite the spirited bid by the then General Secretary of the Party and also Basu himself being clearly in favour. As a disciplined party soldier, he abided by the decision. But that could not stop him from publicly calling it a "historic blunder". Only a Jyoti Babu, not Comrade Basu, could go unpunished after chiding the party in public. No other leader from the Left came anywhere remotely close to that. Only Tridib Chaudhuri, of the Revolutionary Socialist Party - a far smaller leftwing outfit, had been the combined opposition's Presidential candidate against the ruling Congress in the year 1974. But that was for all intent and purpose a symbolic fight. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed would win hands down. Not that he was loved by all, no human is that fortunate. But he definitely commanded widespread respect and also elicited some degree of awe. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, so to say, grew up to become a Communist. While in Britain in late thirties - the colonial ruler of India in those days, studying to become a Barrister. As is the case with his many illustrious senior and junior comrades did. Not too uncommon in those days. The famous advocate Snehangshu Kanta Acharya, who would later become the Advocate general of West Bengal, was understandably very close to him, sharing a broadly similar aristocratic family roots and personal inclinations, in those days and also for long years thereafter. Not too many would remember him now though. Basu, to be sure, had also intimately engaged with the labour movement, at least during his initial years. Was just not confined to parliamentary politics. And led historic popular agitations like the campaign against Bengal-Bihar merger, against one paisa tram fare rise etc. (Not too many would remember now though.) Jyoti Babu, as he was widely known - not Jyoti Da by any stretch nor even Comrade Basu - had his own distinctive air of aloof dignity tinged with evident haughtiness. That came with his aristocratic family roots, privileged foreign education, communist (presumably some superior) ideology, and of course Benglainess. That was perhaps during the second United Front regime in West Bengal, which had assumed power in West Bengal. Those were the days of turmoil - both in the agrarian sector, and also in the cities. Physical bloody fights among the partners of the ruling coalition led by Ajoy Mukhopadhyay of the Bangla Congress was the norm of the day. The CPIM was the second most important constituent and Jyoti Basu was the Home Minister and the Dy. Chief Minister. Bloody clashes between the cadres of the two parties in the countryside were too frequent. And also verbal duel between the leaders. As the things turned particularly sour, Jyoti Babu held a press conference to narrate an alleged incident of atrocities perpetrated by the Bangla Congess men. He'd normally not get involved in such murky business. In this particular event a widow was reportedly assaulted and tortured, to which Basu did refer. A journalist, with mischief on mind, asked him to "elaborate" the "torture" bit. Basu was visibly disgusted. He retorted back that he has already that a widow has been assaulted and tortured. The persistent journalist refusing to give up explained that the other day Sushil Dhara, the second senior most leader of the Bangla Congress, and the Industries Minister (if my memory serves me right), had given an elaborate description of the torture inflicted by the CPM cadres on some women. the quintessential Jyoti Babu with unconcealed contempt shot back: I cannot go down to the level of Sushil Dhara! A comparable example that comes to my mind would take place about a decade later. In 1977, after the Janata Party government came to power, at the end of the Emergency, it dismissed the state governments run by the Congress. In the process, in West Bengal the Left Front led by the CPIM came to power. Dr. Ashok Mitra, at that time a close friend of Basu, now the Chief Minister, became the Finance Minister. The Sunday was quite a popular magazine in those days, edited by M J Akbar. Sometime later, on its last page, it carried an interview of Dr. Mitra, an eminent economist in his own right. The interviewer, at one point, asked him whether the economic philosophy of Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister, known for his conservative vies, is somewhat akin to that of Milton Friedman. Dr. Mitra curtly replied (I imagine I still remember): Why bother about Friedman? He has never heard of his name. (Just think of it! Morarji Bhai is the Prime Minister of the country, and Dr. Mitra is the Finance Minister of a constituent state!) That demonstrative intellectual arrogance (permeated with moral courage), I guess, would not be too commonplace elsewhere. Jyoti Babu, despite being the best known leader of the CPIM towards which the Bengali upper middle class had a distinct animus, came to get identified with Bengali subnationalism and, even if somewhat strangely, struck a chord with the Bengali middle class. Though not exactly comparable, even then somewhat resembling Subhas Bose, a much taller figure and having a strong pan-national appeal cutting across regional divides. Basu is obviously far more parochial in terms of his appeal as compared to Bose. The only other two political figures whose names, in this context, come to mind are C R Das, a mentor of Bose, and subsequently Dr. B C Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal in its early independent years. He reportedly had a special soft corner for Basu despite political rivalries. Ninety-five years is no short span. So Basu could do a lot and saw a lot. If the CPIM in West Bengal had peaked under the (somewhat tension ridden) joint stewardship of his and significantly lesser known, but perhaps even more powerful, Pramod Dasgupta (or PDG); he lived long enough to see the beginning of the dramatic decline of the party that he had nurtured for far too long. Sukla Sen http://www.hindustantimes.com/Nation-mourns-Jyoti-Basu-s-death/H1-Article1-498569.aspx <http://www.hindustantimes.com/Nation-mourns-Jyoti-Basu-s-death/H1-Article1-498569.aspx>Nation mourns Jyoti Basu's death *Indo-Asian News Service* New Delhi, January 17, 2010 First Published: 20:06 IST(17/1/2010) Last Updated: 20:11 IST(17/1/2010) President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday led the nation in mourning the death of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu. Tributes poured in from politicians across the country. While Patil said "the nation has lost a veteran and eminent public figure," Manmohan Singh said Basu was a politician to whom he often turned for "sagacious advice". Basu was a leader "who displayed his abilities as a leader of the people, an able administrator and eminent statesman", the president said in a statement. "In the years after he relinquished the chief ministership, he continued to be looked upon as an elder statesman, whose advice was sought by many political leaders in the state," she added. The 95-year-old leader died in Kolkata Sunday after a prolonged illness. In a message to Jyoti Basu's son Chandan, Manmohan Singh said: "He was a powerful regional voice in the national political scene and helped to strengthen Indian federalism... He was a man of great integrity with a deep commitment to secular values." "I have personally had a very long association with Basu. On many occasions in my career, I turned to him for his sagacious advice on all matters, whether they related to West Bengal or to issues of national importance," he added. Vice President Hamid Ansari said Basu had left behind a void that would be difficult to fill. "His sagacity and leadership at both the state and the national level have been a source of inspiration and guidance," Ansari said in a statement. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that Basu led for several years expressed "profound grief", saying he was a Marxist who was not dogmatic. "Jyoti Basu was a Marxist who never wavered in his convictions. He was a Marxist who was not dogmatic and continued to learn from his vast experience in charting out the course for the party," the CPI-M politburo said. "There will be none like Jyoti Basu again," was how CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat Sunday saluted a man he prevented from becoming the prime minister in 1996. Karat, who influenced the CPI-M to block Basu from taking charge of the United Front government in 1996, said that the former West Bengal chief minister "was a great leader of the CPI-M, the Left movement and India. With his passing away, an era has passed". Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja paid glowing tributes to the Marxist patriarch, saying he could have proved to be a great prime minister. "He (Basu) proved that the coalition of Left parties would work successfully and serve the people greatly. He could have proved to be a great prime minister also," Raja said. Former Lok Sabha speaker and Communist leader Somnath Chatterjee said he had lost someone like his father. "When things started to go bad (in Left front), he was sad. He was sad about what happened with me. I used to consult him on all matters. For the second time, I have lost somebody like my father," said an emotional Chatterjee. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he would miss a well-wisher. "In his death, I lost a great well-wisher, the country has lost an able administrator, an outstanding parliamentarian and a charismatic political leader," Mukherjee told reporters. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee called for a 72-hour mourning in West Bengal. "He was the first and last chapter of the Communist movement in India," she said after emerging out of the AMRI hospital in Kolkata. "He (Basu) will be remembered for his political achievements because of his pioneering role in the country's Left movement." The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the staunchest anti-Communist force in the country, mourned the death of the Marxist leader, describing him as a "role model for Indian politics". In a moving tribute, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley told reporters here that Basu, who was West Bengal's chief minister for 23 long years, was one of the "tallest leaders" in Indian politics with "high credibility". "He was devoted to his ideology and played the longest innings in Indian politics," Jaitley said. Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in Kolkata: "He was a colossus who straddled India's political scene for many decades. Not only the leader of West Bengal, but of India. He was a great patriot, great democrat, great parliamentarian and great source of inspiration. He served the people of India to the best," he said. Former prime minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee said Basu's demise had "ended a chapter in the country's politics". -- Peace Is Doable -- Peace Is Doable--
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