Communists didn't support Emergency: Jyoti Basu

 Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

June 24, 2000

West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has angrily denounced recent reports that the Communists tacitly supported the Emergency. 

In an exclusive interview to rediff.com, he said, "There cannot be a bigger lie than this. This is absolutely rubbish. Those who level such charges should know that the Communists were the biggest victims of the Emergency. Don't they know that our member of Parliament, Jyotirmoy Basu, was arrested along with thousands of workers? Such were the brutalities meted out to him that he died in police lock-up. If we were supporters of the Emergency, as alleged by our adversaries, we would not have extended support to Jayaprakash Narayan's movement. The problem with journalists your age is that you were too young to be witnesses to the Emergency. Therefore, our political rivals easily succeed in misinforming you." 

Recalling the 19 months of the Emergency, on the eve of its 25th anniversary, Basu said while many of his colleagues went underground, he was forced to carry on in total secrecy. "This turned to be a blessing in disguise for us. We utilised the ban on our public activities to our advantage. We started interacting with the people on a one to one basis. This helped us improve our rapport with ordinary people tremendously. That was perhaps one reason why we came to power in the very next assembly election -- in 1977 -- and have been continuing since," he said. 

Were the Socialists right in their decision to align with the Jan Sangh to form the Janata Party after the Emergency? Basu, who will be 86 on July 8, said he was averse to the idea of an alliance with the Jan Sangh. "I warned JP not to align with the Jan Sangh. I told him they (the Jan Sangh leaders) would put you in an awful predicament, but he said there was no alternative in the given circumstances but to align with the Jan Sangh. I made my party's stand absolutely clear that none of our leaders would ever share a platform where Jan Sangh leaders are present," he added. 

For Basu, the Emergency was "the worst thing that could ever happen in India after Independence." 

"It was a shameful act on Indira Gandhi's part," the veteran Marxist said. "It only resulted in butchering democracy and depriving people of various liberties including their fundamental rights. Thousands of people were sent behind bars. But this could not suppress the masses as people came out on roads organising rallies against the Emergency. That Indira Gandhi lost the 1977 election was corroborative of the fact that the people did not approve of her decision. By voting her out of power, the people rightly gave the Congress a fitting reply for its sins that had wreaked havoc among the minds of ordinary citizens all through the country." 

He also criticised the then Congress government in West Bengal, accusing it of committing human rights violations on a large scale. "Indira Gandhi pronounced the Emergency on June 25, 1975, but Siddhartha Shankar Ray (EM> the then Congress chief minister of West Bengal) had begun two years ago when his party assumed power in the state, by rigging the polls. We boycotted the assembly to protest the large scale rigging by the Congress party. Siddhartha Shankar Ray crossed all limits of inhuman acts. There was nothing we could do then. We had to shut down our offices in the state. Many of our senior leaders and workers were arrested and killed, others remained underground for months. That we have been in power since 1977 amply indicates that Bengalis have not forgotten the trauma of the Emergency," Basu, who will step down at the next election, explained. 

https://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jun/24basu.htm

 

TMC government clears land allotment for Jyoti Basu centre

TNN | Updated: Jul 16, 2019, 6:36 IST 

KOLKATA: The state is set to allot a five-acre plot in New Town for a research centre in memory of former chief minister  and CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu, raising eyebrows in political  circles as many see the government decision as Mamata Banerjee’s  bid to reach out to the Left and secular forces. Papers for the land allocation were ready during the Left Front regime in 2010, but the deal got stuck in 2011 when Trinamool came to power.

Sources in the state secretariat said the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) was instructed to bring out the old files and give sanction to the plot. “The proposal will be placed before the state cabinet and the allotment letter will be issued once it is formally approved,” said an official.

Located in the central business district, the centre will be built beside the upcoming High Court complex.

According to officials, the Left front government had sanctioned a five-acre plot to a trust for setting up a centre where people would get a glimpse of different items used by Basu and have a library to conduct research. There were plans to have an auditorium and hold workshops and seminars as well.

The trust paid about Rs 5 crore to the government and an allotment letter was issued. However, the process to hand over the plot got stuck in 2011.

The CPM state committee had then sought the plot from the Mamata Banerjee government, but no initiative was taken to proceed with the proposal. “The land which they were holding back was sanctioned and the money was paid during the Left Front government’s time,” said CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70235970.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

CPI(M) delegation meets Mamata Banerjee over Jyoti Basu centre impasse

29 JUNE 2019  

OUTLOOK, Last Updated at 12:06 AM | SOURCE: IANS

Students of Golden Sand Art Institute of Sudarshan Pattnaik at Puri make a sand sculpture of former Chief Minister West Bengal Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, June 28: A CPI-M delegation on Friday met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to resolve the impasse over the left party not getting possession of a plot of land purchased by it for setting up a research centre in the name of late party patriarch Jyoti Basu.

Member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretariat Rabin Deb, who was part of the delegation, said his party had been allotted a five-acre plot of land by the erstwhile Left Front government in January, 2011 to build the Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research in the Rajarhat-Newtown area.

"Accordingly, we paid the full amount for the land in two instalments to the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) by the first half of May, 2011. However, after the present (Trinamool Congress) government came to power, we were not given possession of the land," said Deb.

The CPI-M had originally planned to launch the centre on Basu''s centenary in 2014, and its leaders called on Banerjee and Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim to pursue the matter.

"But the Chief Minister had told us that the minister would take care of the matter. But the government later told us that it was prepared to allot a separate land for the centre.

"We inspected this plot, but found that it was on a marsh land. Then we told the government that since we had already paid the full amount for a specific plot of land on the main road, we would go for that plot only," said Deb.

On Friday, when the CPI-M leaders met her, Banerjee told them there was some dispute over the plot of land allotted to the party earlier.

"We have told the Chief Minister that we can go for a joint inspection of the plot with the minister and HIDCO officials to see if there was any dispute. But to the best of our knowledge, there is no dispute," said Deb.

Jyoti Basu, one of the founding politburo members of the CPI-M, was the Chief Minister of West Bengal during the Left Front rule from 1977-2000 before voluntarily stepping down owing to ill-health and old age. He passed away on Janaury 17, 2010.

The CPI-M plans to utilise the centre to store documents concerning the leader as also the communist movements in India and elsewhere in the world.

The proposed centre is scheduled to have digitised information on Basu, besides housing an auditorium, a conference room, a seminar room, a library and guest rooms.

 Outlook

Now Mamata Banerjee re-christens projects named after Left leader Jyoti Basu

By Madhuparna Das, ET Bureau

Updated: Oct 15, 2017, 11.56 PM IST

KOLKATA: In August, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress emerged as the most vocal critic in Parliament of the Centre’s proposal to rename the Mughalsarai station. In just two months after those protests, her government in West Bengal appears to be on a mission to re-christen state projects, and delink them from their Communist past.

The foundation stone of the Salt Lake stadium, laid by the late Jyoti Basu, the longest serving Left Front CM, has been removed from the main entry to the Kolkata sporting arena that’s hosting the U-17 soccer world cup. Banerjee has also changed the name of a water treatment plant from the Jyoti Basu Jal Prakalpa to Jai Hind Jal Prakalpa.

Her government has also removed Basu’s name from the planned satellite city of Newtown, and did not hand over a plot of land to the CPIM that bought the property to build a research and study centre on Basu and the Communist movement in West Bengal. In the renaming spree, she appears to have spared only Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin - as of now. In downtown Kolkata, important roads were named after the greatest Communist thinkers when the Left Front ruled West Bengal uninterruptedly for 34 years.

These are among the more visible moves to end the Communist legacy. More subtle, however, are the Left defections that the Trinamool has successfully engineered in the past five years.

Simultaneously, her government has been quietly changing the history syllabus to dilute the textbook portrayals of the international Communist movement. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and other Communist thinkers are now given limited space in the school and college curriculum, and her government has replaced the Left thought with chapters on the freedom struggle and the movements at Nandigram and Singur.

The Bengal government has also replaced street art and murals with the logo of Biswa Bangla, a state initiative that seeks to burnish the state’s allure as an investment destination. Understandably, the moves have invited criticism from the Opposition.

Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, former mayor of Kolkata, said: “How can a government destroy history? One might love or hate a particular idea, but how can one try to omit or alter history? If the present regime has something to say, it should add to the existing literature. But a government should always maintain historical reality. Banerjee’s government has removed all plates and foundation stones that had the names of her predecessors Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. This is pure autocracy.”

Read more at:
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`She makes me a bad Marxist, makes me believe in godliness'

Saugata Roy | TNN | Sep 5, 2016, 04.29 PM IST

A Marxist, Jyoti Basu stayed way from the funeral mass at Netaji Indoor Stadium, but attended mother's last journey.

How do a Catholic and a communist get along,"people often wondered while discussing the mu tual respect that Mother Teresa and Jyoti Basu had for each other. Basu was a Communist and atheist. Mother was a Catholic nun with an unflinching belief in God. Yet, Basu's doors were always open for Mother, who used to call on the chief minister at Writers' Buildings without hesitation. Once, she was even allowed to interrupt a cabinet meeting because she needed to meet Basu urgently. "We share a love for the poor," Basu would say in reply to the query. In his book on the Mother, `Messiah of the Poor', B K Chaturvedi quotes Basu as saying: "She makes me a bad Marxist since she makes me believe in godliness."

When Mother addressed Basu, she would prefix `My friend' before she took his name. The mutual understanding has a parallel in Cuba, where Fidel Castro in 1992 welcomed churchgoing Catholics to join the Communist Party of Cuba, shunning the "atheist" tag on communists. Known as a liberal among Mar xists, Basu didn't give up his Marxist identity though. He stayed away from the Mass before Mother's last journey at Netaji Indoor Stadium, where dignitaries like US First Lady Hillary Clinton, opposition leader Atal Behari Vajpayee had assembled to pay tribute. Basu joined the programme only after the Missionaries of Charity spokesperson announced in the stadium: "The Mother will now begin her last journey".

A retired state bureaucrat recoun ted how Basu worked from behind to give Mother Teresa a fitting farewell.He micro-managed the entire programme and also gave the Missionaries of Charity the go-ahead to keep her remains at Mother House, something that usually doesn't happen under the law.

In the book `Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging', Ronda Chervin recounts an incident when Basu called up the Mother asking her to provide a home for some destitute women who were languishing in prison for the want of a better place. She immediately took in 40 and provi sions were made to build a home for them on the land provided by the government.

Former election commissioner Navin Chawla, who was Mother's biographer, recounts how on one occasion when Mother was visiting Delhi, she fell ill and had to be admitted to a hospital. For a week that she was there, Chawla recalls, Basu called every day . When she was hospitalised in Kolkata, Basu would discreetly drop by and speak to the doctors.

It must be sheer providence that Mother House and Pramode Dasgupta Marxist Education Centre exist cheek by jowl. While the former was Mother Teresa's residence and continues to be the nunnery where relatively new entrants to the Missionaries of Charity are trained, the latter is, as the name suggests, a centre that trains comrades.

Basu and Mother Teresa: a special association

ANANYA DUTTA

THE HINDU, KOLKATA, January 19, 2010

PTI

A file photo of 1994 shows veteran Communist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu with Mother Teresa at a function in Kolkata.

As Kolkata mourns and prepares for the “shesh jatra” (final journey) of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu on Tuesday, many are reminded of a public funeral more than a decade ago, when Mr. Basu, as the West Bengal Chief Minister, came to offer a wreath to Mother Teresa to sustained applause from a stadium full of people.

“The special association between Jyoti Basu and Mother Teresa was marked by a mutual admiration that they felt for each other. As far as Mr. Basu was concerned, there were standing instructions that should she ever seek an appointment with him, there was to be no delay,” said Joykrishno Ghosh, a personal aide of Mr. Basu since 1977.

Mr. Basu always tried to be supportive of her work and personally oversaw the arrangements for her funeral, Mr. Ghosh said.

“She makes me a bad Marxist since she makes me believe in godliness,” is what Mr. Basu reportedly remarked after one of their frequent meetings, according to Messiah of the Poor, a book on the life of Mother Teresa by B. K. Chaturvedi.

The remarkable, if somewhat paradoxical relationship between the Catholic nun, now known as Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, and the committed Communist leader is well known and widely written about.

In the book, Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging, Ronda Chervin recounts an incident when Mr. Basu called up Mother Teresa asking her to provide a home for some destitute women who were languishing in prison for the want of a better place. She immediately took in 40 of them and provisions were made to build a home for them on the land provided by the government.

Mother Teresa was once allowed to interrupt a Cabinet meeting when she needed to meet Mr. Basu urgently, film-maker T. Rajeevnath, who has been planning a film on the life of Mother Teresa over the past few years, told The Hindu over the telephone.

“A year ago I was surprised to receive a call from Jyoti Basu’s secretary. Jyoti Babu had read media reports about my film and called me up to assure me that the whole of Bengal will be with me if I made my film. Such was his regard for her,” Mr. Rajeevnath said. 

JYOTI BASU & MOTHER TERESA: An unusual friendship

NAVIN B. CHAWLA

THE HINDU, January 19, 2010 02:08 IST

PTI 

Mother Teresa invariably prefixed "my friend" before she took Jyoti Basu's name.

Asked what he, a Communist and atheist, could possibly have in common with Mother Teresa for whom God was everything, Jyoti Basu said with a smile: “We both share a love for the poor.”

The Hindu requested Navin B. Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner of India and Mother Teresa’s biographer, to share his insights into the remarkable friendship between Jyoti Basu and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity:

During the course of writing a biography on Mother Teresa, I asked Chief Minister Jyoti Basu what he, a Communist and atheist, could possibly have in common with Mother Teresa for whom God was everything. With a smile that reached his eyes, he said: “We both share a love for the poor.” For her part, Mother Teresa invariably prefixed the words “My friend” before she took his name.

From the legendary Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. B.C. Roy, who first recognised her work, to the equally legendary Jyoti Basu who was always available to her when she needed him, Mother Teresa’s work in the city that was beloved of her, could not have been possible to the extent it was without their understanding and their support. It is not that the Missionaries of Charity did not spread their wings to almost 600 centres in 123 countries around the world. It is that Kolkata was her epicentre, the city she identified as her home.

On one occasion when Mother Teresa was visiting Delhi, she fell ill and had to be admitted to a city hospital. For a week that she was there, I was at her bedside and also became her link to the besieged hospital switchboard; there were no mobile phones in those days. With unfailing regularity, Jyoti Basu rang each day to enquire after her health. When I once told him that she repetitively said to me, “Let me go back to Kolkata, I will be all right there,” he laughed understandingly.

On another occasion, when she was admitted to the Woodlands Nursing Home in Kolkata, I saw him enter without fuss, meet Doctor Bardhan and the Sisters, make an enquiry and quietly leave. One of Mother Teresa’s senior-most companions, Sister Gertrude, said to me: “He does not miss a single day.”

In turn, whenever he was unwell, she would visit him in the nursing home or at his house, say a prayer and leave. The good wishes of the one and the prayers of the other complemented each other both in sickness and in health.

On one of my visits to Kolkata, Mother Teresa asked me whether I had been to Tengra. She explained that the Chief Minister had asked her to take charge of about 400 women inmates of the Kolkata jail, many of whom had been undertrials for long years; others were mentally ill. In her practical way, she asked him for some land. He gave her about 11 acres in Tengra, near the leather tanneries.

When I visited it, she had already created a haven of peace and tranquillity. Just four of her Sisters had taken charge. The women were finally at peace. Tengra was a visible demonstration that both spoke the same language.

In July of 1997, when I was a mere Joint Secretary in the government, I sought an appointment with the then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister; I do not know what made me do it. I told him that Mother Teresa was very sick and did not have much time left to live. Having nursed her once in Delhi, I had also become distantly acquainted with the halls of power that called with unfailing regularity seeking a health bulletin.

I knew that many of these callers would come to her funeral, and there could be a protocol nightmare. I added that no matter where she passed away, the Sisters would bring her to Kolkata for her burial there. “Leave it with me,” he said adding that he would need to be in touch with Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, as he would need to look into all the arrangements.

She died about two months later on September 5 that year. I was told later that Jyoti Basu had been alerted some weeks earlier. When my family and I attended the memorial service and the funeral in Kolkata, everything went off like clock work.

Later on, my batchmate and friend S.N. Menon, Secretary to the Chief Minister, told me of the correspondence and work that began at the West Bengal end. During the first part of the actual ceremony, where religious rites were also being administered, Jyoti Basu chose not to be present. Like a good communist, he entered at exactly the moment when these ended, and the civic part of the ceremony began. But I saw his imprint in every last detail.

And when at the very last, the Missionaries of Charity Sisters asked for special permission to bury Mother Teresa at Motherhouse, her headquarters at Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Road, that permission too he accorded.

He gave his friend Mother Teresa a befitting farewell. 

JYOTI BASU 102ND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION PROGRAMME

Somnath Chatterjee inaugurates an exhibition of portraits and sketches on Jyoti Basu

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee inaugurates an exhibition of portraits and sketches on Jyoti Basu at the Academy of Fine Arts on Tuesday.

The event, that was held to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Basu, will continue for a week.

"Jyotibabu is the tallest example in politics of how to serve people. People might have at times thought that he was a very reserved person. But having worked closely with him, I have seen how intense his feelings and emotions for people were. Jyoti Basu used to say politics was the only way to serve the masses. He did politics by putting his heart into it," Chatterjee said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150325/jsp/bengal/story_10716.jsp

Jyoti Basu: An energizing Communist

By V. S. Achyuthanandan

I am having the fortune to cherish the fond memories of Com. Jyoti Basu that spread over half a century. Being  members of the Polit Bureau  and Central Committee of the CPI(M), we had been able to work together during different occasions on various issues. Jyoti Basu was a clear-cut example of a communist leader. How a communist should behave in life as well as in struggles is evident in the personality of Com. Jyoti Basu. When he was in ill bed I visited him at his residence and in hospital more than once. On that occasions, irrespective of his ill health, we have exchanged and recollected our old memories for a long time. That was also last memorable movements in our friendship. One of those occasions, I proudly recollect, he told me that “you are a good fighter and  still  you have enough strength & courage  to continue the fight  for people’s cause.” 

We all know he was born and brought up in an affluent family.  And he could attain the higher  education from London.   So, he could have led a comfortable life. But, it is discarding all these fortunes that he became a staunch fighter of the working class movement in the country.

It’s a fact that his life at London helped him have association with  Prof. Harold Lasky and many other  left thinkers,  later on paved way for him to  have close connection with the  anti-fascist & working class movements. When Basu returned home, the fire he got from the anti- imperialist & fascist movement in London helped him plunge into the turbulent turmoil’s  of  freedom struggle.  As a communist leader, he was always  with the toiling masses. The  problem they faced, he took them as his own. For their cause, he was ready to take  any risk. And gradually he grew up to the stature of a great leader. Struggles, under-ground life, arrests, conviction – all these were part and parcel of his life, exactly in tune with the life of a true communist.

His life was, in its full sense, committed to the people and the nation. So, personal sorrows never annoyed him. At the time of the death his father, Basu was in Dum Dum Central jail. So he could not have a look at his father before he breathed his last.  But the communist in Basu was strong enough to bear all these heart-renting moments.

It was in 1958 that I came to have personal association with Com. Basu when I became the national council member  of the undivided Communist Party of India. During that time great are the memories we experienced together in fighting relentlessly against revisionism  in the party. It was the leadership quality  of Com. Basu that  succeeded in keeping the comrades in West Bengal in tune with the parties correct line.

Ultimately in 1964, 32 comrades staged a walk-out permanently from the national council  of CPI and later on CPI(M) was formed. And  Com. Basu was one among those 32 comrades. At present, myself is the only one among those 32 comrades  who is alive today.

In the Vijayawada Congress in 1961, we fought strongly inside the party against the rightist deviations under Dange. At that time Jyothi Basu was well in the fore-front of this struggle along with Comrades Basava Punnaiah and  P Sundarayiah. And Jyoti Basu had alone done a marvelous job in making meticulous arrangements for the first organizational conference which marked the formation of the CPI(M) in 1964 in Kolkota. 

The Bengal People are greatly indebted  to Com. Jyoti Basu for establishing a left-front government in West Bengal  emancipating the state from the tyrannical Congress rule led by late  Sidhartha Sanker Ray. In this fight, he remained on a par with Comrades Pramod Das Gupta, Saroj Mukharjee and Binoy Chowdhari etc.

After this, under his agile leadership he could lead Bengal to prosperity for a period of three decades. He could establish novel models in Bengal by effecting land-reforms and decentralization of power. Under his leadership, Bengal could attain the highest  rate of agricultural growth in the country. It was his association with the peasant movement in Bengal that helped him take these progressive measures in agricultural sector. But unfortunately before establishing cent percent rights for the tenancy of the peasants and agricultural workers over land, he had to move away from power. But even then, the laws promulgated by the Basu government remain to be a land-mark in the history not only of West Bengal, but the entire nation .

Basu’s fond memories are also relevant  in the fact that he had been successful in containing and saving the state during the days of communal struggles. It was well seen during the time of the demolition of Babari Masjid.

At one occasion, there was a call from different corners that Basu should be made the Prime Minister of India. Even though it was not realized, it was a great recognition and honour for the personality of Basu and the CPI(M).

In short, Com. Jyoti Basu was a hard-core communist, a relentless fighter for the cause of the down-trodden and the working class, an able administrator, a far-sighted leader, a staunch secularist  and what not.

At this juncture, when the country is on the brim of a collapse in the hands of the BJP-led communal and divisive forces, the great memories  of Com. Jyoti Basu would be an energizing force for all the secular  and democratic sections to fight against these communal forces.  

………………………………………………………………..

Bengal celebrates Jyoti Basu's birth centenary

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.

Jyoti Basu birth centenary tomorrow

STAFF REPORTER

THE HINDU, KOLKATA, July 7, 2014

Kolkata: Not only leaders of the Left parties but academicians and members of the intelligentsia will be present at the birth centenary celebrations of former West Bengal Chief Minister and veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, chairperson of the State Left Front Committee Biman Basu said here on Sunday. The event will be organised at Nazrul Mancha, a city auditorium, on Tuesday.

Mr. Basu said, “Apart from Left leaders, the event will be attended by eminent economist Prabhat Patnaik, who will be the main speaker. Well-known novelist Nabaneeta Dev Sen will also address the gathering.” Mr. Basu said that the event would also be attended by veteran politician Kashikanta Maitra, who worked with Jyoti Basu. A booklet on the life and ideals of Jyoti Basu will be released.

It will comprise Jyoti Basu’s speech at the Nehru Memorial Lecture in Delhi. Besides, there will be cultural programmes such as song, dance, and recitation of poetry.

A select audio-visual clippings of Jyoti Basu’s speech will also be played.

Mr. Basu, who had been the longest serving Chief Minister of any State, passed way on January 17, 2010. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977 to 2000.

Governor's intervention sought on Jyoti Basu Nagar issue

IANS, Last Updated: Saturday, December 21, 2013, 01:13  

  

Kolkata: Taking exception to West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government's attempt to change the name of a township christened after former chief minister Jyoti Basu, left leaders and other eminent persons Friday urged sought the intervention of Governor MK Narayanan to redress their grievance.

"It goes without saying that the people as a whole, take exception to the attempt of changing the name of Jyoti Basu Nagar, by the West Bengal government," said a memorandum given to Narayanan by the Jyoti Basu Birth Centenary Celebration Committee.

The Trinamool Congress regime last month withdrew in the state assembly the New Town, Kolkata Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2011 passed by the erstwhile Left Front regime that had included a proposal to name the New Town area as JyotiBasuNagar.

Narayanan has already disapproved the dropping of the bill, while the Left has been demanding introduction of a new legislation restoring the name.

Hasim Abdul Halim, working president of the committee, claimed before journalists that the governor told the delegation that he has already communicated to the government that he was not in favor of changing the name.

"It is requested that being the constitutional head of the state, you would be kind enough to take up the issue appropriately and redress the natural grievance of the people that it generates," said the memorandum.

The delegation pointed out that the LF government had named New Town after Basu in recognition of his immense contribution in building the modern township.

HIDCO, a government agency which developed the township, took a resolution Aug 12, 2010 to name it after Basu, and referred the matter to the housing department which approved the proposal that was later okayed by the state cabinet.

The bill was then passed by the legislative assembly, but the governor referred it to the Trinamool government, which came to power in May 2011.

Basu holds the record for being the longest serving chief minister. The Marxist patriarch occupied the chair from 1977 to 2000, when he voluntarily stepped down due to old age. 

Rajiv Gandhi twice asked Jyoti Basu to become PM: Book

By Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN Nov 26, 2013, 03.48AM IST

KOLKATA: Rajiv Gandhi had wanted Jyoti Basu to become the Prime Minister and had pleaded with him twice during the politically tumultuous times of 1990 and 1991, former CBI director and Bengal DGP Arun Prosad Mukherjee has revealed in his autobiography.

The recently-released book — "Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu, Indrajit Gupta" — is based on Mukherjee's diary entries, maintained from the time he joined IPS in 1956, and his interactions with Rajiv, Basu and Gupta in various capacities as Darjeeling SP, Bengal DGP, state vigilance commissioner, CBI boss, special secretary in the home ministry, and finally, advisor to the home minister (Indrajit Gupta).

Mukherjee was special secretary, home ministry, in October 1990 when Rajiv informally asked him to arrange a meeting with Basu, says the book. The communist leader said it was not his call and only the party's central committee and Politburo could take such a decision. CPM vetoed it and Chandrashekhar — Rajiv's third choice — became PM with Congress support.

In 1991, when Chandrashekhar turned out to be a failure, Rajiv again approached Basu but he declined and referred the matter to his party leadership. Mukherjee writes that he took Rajiv's emissary for a meeting with senior CPM leaders at former MP Biplab Dasgupta's house. "But my worst conjecture proved right ... and thus ended the second opportunity of putting up the Left Front's best foot forward in the larger interest of Bengal."

Five years later, thanks to a hung Parliament, several local satraps, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, proposed Basu's name again for Prime Minister. And again the CPM central committee voted against it. In an interview at the end of 1996, Basu termed it a "historic blunder". "However, it is not generally known that such blunders had taken place twice in 1990-91... largely because of the unrealistic, short-sighted and 'blunder-proof' mindset of CPM leaders," writes the former DGP.

The CPM leadership has been taken aback by Mukherjee's revelation. Rajya Sabha MP Shyamal Chakraborty, who wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this year for a commemorative postage stamp on Basu's centenary, told TOI on Monday: "I had no idea about this, so I can't comment on something I don't know of."

Former Lok Sabha Speaker and expelled CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee didn't know of it either. "It (not allowing Basu to become PM) was the weirdest example of democratic centralism. I respectfully agree with Jyoti-babu's 'historic blunder' comment. I wish the blunder hadn't been committed and history would have been written differently. Look what's happened to the party now — it's become politically irrelevant."

Chatterjee agreed with Mukherjee's remark in his book that the country's "murky political and administrative ethos" then would have been transformed with Basu at the helm.

Speaking to TOI, the 82-year-old Mukherjee said: "All three (Gandhi, Basu and Gupta) were different personalities. Jyoti Basu was firm, Rajiv was extremely courteous while Indrajit Gupta was a straight-talker. But they trusted me and allowed me to speak my mind. They knew about my integrity."

About the "blunder" he said, "The CPM leadership refused to see reason and there was no way one could convince them." His writing is more explicit: "All the implications and finer points made out by me in favour of Jyoti Basu accepting Rajiv Gandhi's offer of prime ministership though presumably for a short period of 8-12 months went over the heads of Left Front leaders — thanks to their blinkered vision."

What happened

* 1990: Basu tops Rajiv list of 3 prospective PMs but CPM says no. Chandrashekar, the last name on Rajiv's list, after Devi Lal, becomes PM.

* 1991: Chandrashekar flops. Rajiv again requests Basu. Mukherjee says he will arrange a meet if Rajiv ensures Basu is PM for at least a year. Rajiv agrees. Basu says party must decide. CPM again says no.

* 1996: After the fall of 13-day-old Vajpayee govt, United Front asks Basu to be PM. Yet again, CPM says no.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-26/india/44486023_1_jyoti-basu-cpm-central-committee-rajiv-gandhi