IANS, Tuesday, July 08, 2014,
22:57
Kolkata: West Bengal
Tuesday celebrated the birth centenary of Jyoti Basu - one of the most revered
Indian politicians and the state's former chief minister - with blood donation
camps, seminars and cultural programmes.
The Marxist patriarch, who holds the
record in post-independence India for the longest chief ministerial tenure and
narrowly missed becoming the country's prime minister, is credited with having
successfully made centre-state relations a major debating point in the late
1970s and 1980s and emerging as a central figure in anti-Congress political
space at the national level.
In the morning, Basu's portrait was
garlanded in the assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee and Leader of the
Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M), of which Basu was a founding member, organised programmes across the
state to celebrate the occasion.
Basu's photos were garlanded outside
CPI-M offices and those of its various mass organisations in the city and the
districts. The party organised blood donation camps, discussions and seminars,
highlighting his life and contribution and dwelling on the present political
scenario in the country and the state.
The central function was held at the
sprawling Nazrul Mancha where Left Front leaders stressed on Left unity and
reflected on the errors committed during recent elections.
CPI-M state secretary and Left Front
chairman Biman Bose said Basu's life was a shining example for young comrades
in abiding by party discipline.
Communist Party of India (CPI) state
secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar questioned the call given for an anti-Congress
and anti-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative during the recent elections in the
absence of any solid understanding among Left parties.
"Had Jyoti Babu been there, such
a slogan would have not come out," he said.
All India Forward Bloc state secretary
Ashok Ghosh expressed concern for the Left parties suffering a serious loss of
their mass base.
"When we address these issues we
can pay the real tribute to Jyoti Basu," said Ghosh.
Basu had stewarded the state's Left
front government as chief minister from 1977 to 2000, that earned him accolades
from both within the country and abroad for his skills in running a coalition
successfully in a multi-party democratic set-up.
Basu's close aide Sarit Bandyopdhyay
Asaid he was a "multifaceted personality" with a razor-sharp memory
and had a open mind on all matters. He also followed sports.
Refering to the turn of events in 1996
when the CPI-M prevented Basu from becoming prime minister at the head of the
United Front government, Bose said that Basu accepted the party decision like a
"true communist". However, later Basu had dubbed the decision a
"historic blunder".
Basu's successor as chief minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said Basu had placed the struggle of peasants and
working classes at the centre of politics.
"The fight for land was carried
forward by providing pattas (land titles) to landless farmers. The rights of
sharecropeprs was also protected," he said.
The CPI-M politburo minister also
recalled how the "secular" Basu ensured that Bengal remained free
from communal strife in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Economist Prabhat Patanik also
addressed the programme.
Born July 8, 1914, Basu joined the CPI
in 1940 and began his work in the railway trade union movement. In 1946, he was
elected to the Bengal legislative assembly from the Railway constituency.
He played a key role in the
development of the CPI in India and was the secretary of its provincial
committee from 1954 to 1960. He became a member of the central committee of the
CPI in 1951. When the CPI-M was formed in 1964, he became one of the founder
politburo and central committee members.
He passed away Jan 17, 2010. His body
was handed over to the SSKM hospital in deference to his wish that it be
donated for medical research after his death. His eyes were used to give vision
to a till-then blind person.
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