Jyoti Basu

Jyoti Basu aka শালিবাহন(born Jyotirindra Basu or Jyoti Bose; 8 July 1914 – 17 January 2010) was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was a member of Politburo of the party from its formation in 1964 until 2008. He was also a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been India's longest serving chief minister under elected democracy at the time of his resignation. He declined the post of Prime Minister after the 1996 Indian general election, after the CPM refused to let him head a multi-party coalition as it would not be able to implement Marxist programs, and relinquished the prime ministership to Deve Gowda.

Early life and education

thumb|250x250px|Paternal house of Jyoti Basu at Barudi in [[Narayanganj District|Narayanganj, Bangladesh His father, Nishikanta Basu was a doctor whose hometown was the village of Barudi, Narayanganj in Dhaka District of the Bengal Presidency while his mother Hemlata Basu was a housewife. He grew up in an Indian style joint family and was the youngest of three siblings. His family also retained ancestral lands in Barudi where Jyoti Basu is described to have spent part of his childhood. The Barudi home of Basu was later turned into a library after his death, reportedly on his wishes.

Basu's schooling began in 1920 at Loreto School Kindergarten in Dharmatala, Calcutta. Subsequently, he took an undergraduate course in English from the prestigious Presidency College. he acquired admission in the University College, London (UCL) to study Law and became a barrister at Middle Temple on 26 January 1940. He had already left for India by the time he acquired his barristerial qualification which he received in absentia. Due to which, he is also credited as an alumnus of LSE. He had reportedly attended the lectures of the political theorist and economist, Harold Laski and was influenced by his anti-fascism. Basu enrolled as a barrister at the Calcutta High Court, Following the Meerut conspiracy in 1929, the Communist Party had also been made illegal by British authorities, as a result Basu was initially involved in providing liaison and safe houses for underground Communist leaders in the Independence movement.

In 1941, Basu was appointed the party secretary of the Bengal Assam Railway (now Bangladesh Railway and Northeast Frontier Railway) and tasked with organising a workers union. while the Bengal Assam Railway Workers Union under him increased its membership to over 4,000 with union members present in Dacca, Calcutta, Kanchrapara, Mymensingh, Rangpur and Assam.

In the following Bengal famine of 1943, the members of the Communist Party including Basu were involved in famine relief work. The party also organised "People's Food Committees" which would attempt to force hoarders into releasing their stocks for distribution; Basu participated in the organisation of such committees in Calcutta and Midnapore. Basu was elected to the Bengal provincial committee of the Communist Party in the same year.

By 1944, Basu had started leading the trade union activities of the Communist Party. He was again delegated to organise labourers working for the East Indian Railway Company (now Eastern Railway and East Central Railway) in order to further the interests of the Indian workers and is described to have been instrumental in the formation of the Bengal Nagpur Railway (now South Eastern Railway, East Coast Railway and South East Central Railway) Workers' Union of which he became the general secretary. He subsequently defeated Humayun Kabir of the Indian National Congress and was elected to the assembly. He is noted to have given a "soul stirring speech" on the presiding food crisis in the Bengal Assembly; Basu had also organised a continuous railway strike in support of the 1946 Royal Indian Navy ratings revolt, The Congress however faced civil unrest from the onset; By this time, the state of West Bengal had already been declared as a "problem province" by the Congress administration and Bidhan Chandra Roy replaced as the new chief minister. Basu argued that while the Congress spoke of Kisan Raj (), it had made no progress in abolishing the Zamindari system and had instead developed vested interests with the Zamindars () themselves which resulted in the persistence of poor socioeconomic conditions and the employment of repressive tactics against agitations.

In the following period the Communist Party was made illegal by the government on allegations of trying to incite on open rebellion and Basu repeatedly arrested as a result; on 24 March 1948, he was imprisoned for a period of three months and released on the orders of the Calcutta High Court. In the same year, the federation had held a strike ballot which displayed overwhelming support for a railway strike on 9 March in demand of better wages and working conditions in the Indian Railways. The strike notice was however withdraw by the socialist leadership of the federation to whom the government had shown a reconciliatory attitude but the communist members under the leadership of Basu insisted on proceeding with the strike which resulted in disciplinary action being taken against the communists.

First Assembly and agitations (1952–1957)

In the West Bengal State Assembly election of 1952, Basu was elected as the representative of the Baranagar constituency and the Communist Party emerged as the second-largest party in the assembly. Following which Basu was unanimously elected as the legislative party leader of the CPI in West Bengal. in which Basu is described to have played a key role.

Even after the Independence of India, the Calcutta Tramways Company had remained a British-owned company which operated in partnership with the Government of West Bengal. On 25 June 1953, the company announced a fare hike for second class passengers that was to be implemented from 1 July onwards, which was supported by the West Bengal Government. the Communist party held its third congress in Madurai and Basu was elected as the new Central Committee member during the congress. The Communist Party having maintained the stance of supporting linguistic reorganisation of states in India since 1920, was vehemently opposed to the proposal of the merger. The announcement of the proposal caused widespread protests in West Bengal led by students, workers and even peasantry, the Central Committee of the Communist Party held a meeting between 28 January to 4 February protesting the move. Basu and Yogendra Sharma, the secretaries of the state committees of the Communist Party in West Bengal and Bihar respectively issued a joint press statement calling the merger proposal to be "antidemocratic and reactionary". As a result, Basu formally became the Leader of Opposition in the assembly. The food crisis and general poverty had led to multiple outbursts of public agitations throughout the 1950s which peaked near the end of 1959.

By the end of 1958, the Communist Party initiated the formation of the Price Increase and Famine Resistance Committee (PIFRC) in collaboration with the other primarily leftist members of the opposition. On 9 July, the Swadhinata gave a clarion call through an editorial which stated that "People of West Bengal know quite well that the Congress Government and its food policy are responsible for their destitute condition. They also know that only by hitting hard, time and again, they could be forced to do at least something..." Earlier on 6 July, the PIFRC had issued a press release stating intent to begin the civil disobedience movement by taking preparations to organise volunteers; Basu was among the list of signatories that included Niranjan Sengupta and Nihar Mukherjee. This caused an outburst of students protests against police atrocities and led to instances of police firing on student protesters. Over the course of the following days between 2–5 September, civil unrest with large scale participation from students of schools, colleges and universities erupted across the city accompanied by violent encounters with the police, vandalism and mass shootings by the police; The Communist Party had also become the second largest party in the Lok Sabha following the 1962 Indian general election with nearly 10% vote share which is described to have brought prominence to the internal divisions of the party.

The leftist section continued to oppose the Chinese stand on the India-China frontier but was also opposed to providing unconditional support to the Nehru government because of its "class character" contrary to the rightist section which had declared outright support for the central government. This stance of the leftist section came as dissatisfactory to the Nehru government which had imposed a state of national emergency and introduced the Defence of India Ordinance, 1962, and henceforth utilised them to imprison various opposition leaders and activists as well as Chinese Indian citizens. Basu was imprisoned among other major communist leaders such as the former chief minister of Kerala, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the organisational specialist Promode Dasgupta, the founding leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Hare Krishna Konar, the Indian revolutionary freedom fighter, Benoy Choudhury, the Telangana revolutionaries, Puchalapalli Sundarayya and Makineni Basavapunnaiah as well as some members of the rightist section such as the trade unionist A. B. Bardhan. On 27 June 1965, Basu also became the founding editor of the English language organ of the new party called People's Democracy. Civil unrest also peaked during the ensuing period which led to a succession of unstable governments, the establishment of armed political cadres, Naxalbari uprising and widespread spontaneous agitations against prevailing conditions of extreme poverty.

In the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1967, fourteen opposition parties contested through two pre-poll political alliances; the CPI-M led United Left Front and the CPI and Bangla Congress (splinter of the Congress party formed in 1966) led People's United Left Front. all of whom eventually settled for Ajoy Mukherjee of the Bangla Congress as the consensus candidate for the position while Basu became the deputy chief minister and in-charge of the finance department.

For the mid-term West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1969, the United Front Committee was formed consisting of all the coalition partners of the previous government which agreed upon a pre-poll alliance to contest the election together under a 32-point programme. In addition during the negotiations Basu was able to secure the portfolios of fisheries, food, excise, labour, civil defence and education for the CPI-M as well as the department of general administration and police from the home ministry forsaking the finance ministry which he had previously held.

In the subsequent second United Front cabinet, Basu became both the deputy chief minister and in-charge of general administration and police. The first six months of the second United Front government as a result experienced a record of 551 strikes and 73 union lockdowns across the state with a participation of approximately 570,000 workers. Although the previous United Front government had tolerated initial landgrabs by the Naxalites, The agitation was notably defused by him in person, who permitted a group of dissident police personnel to enter his office in the assembly house during a demonstration and negotiated with them, reprehending them for disorderly behaviour while taking into consideration the grievances raised. the identity of the assailant has remained unknown til date. The government continued to be operational until the dissolution of the assembly by presidential proclamation on 30 July. However, Mukherjee who led the Bangla Congress was able to regain his former position through a post-poll coalition called the Democratic Coalition which notably included Indira Gandhi's Congress and was supported by the CPI and Congress (Organisation). the press in Calcutta at the time reported that the rigging had occurred in around 50 constituencies. It was also noted that several constituencies which were known as left wing strongholds had produced massive victory margins in favour of Congress (R) whereas the CPI-M increased its vote share in constituencies which were Congress strongholds; the explanation provided by the CPI-M was that violence and rigging methods were mostly employed at unfavorable constituencies and that elections had been rigged in 87–172 other constituencies. One of the discrepancies pointed at by the CPI-M was that the constituency of Baranagar which had recorded a very high voter turnout despite being subject to section 144 and violent clashes throughout the day which had resulted in the death of one its workers. The CPI-M boycotted the assembly for the remaining term of the seventh assembly taking the stance that a "massive rigging" had occurred.

In 1975, the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi imposed a national emergency on the premise of internal disturbances suspending elections, legitimising rule by decree and curbing civil liberties. The proposition for the declaration of the emergency and the formal draft of the ordinance were both notably corroborated to have been forwarded by Siddhartha Shankar Ray. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) emerged as one of the primary opposition to the emergency rule of Indira Gandhi. The members of the CPI-M's labour union became the first subject to political repression and mass arrests while the rest of the members of the CPI-M went underground. JP and Basu eventually agreed that the CPI-M would not formally join the Janata Party as it would weaken the movement.

Chief Minister of West Bengal (1977–2000)

For the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, negotiations between the Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) broke down.

thumb|Jyoti Basu in his office

First term (1977–1982)

In the first term of the coming to power, the Left Front government under Basu initiated a number of agrarian and institutional reforms which resulted in reduction of poverty rates, an exponential rise in agricultural production and decrease in political polarisation. It also enabled the large scale adoption of technological advancements which had earlier been brought in through the Green Revolution in India in the 1960s. During this period, the state of West Bengal moved from being a food importer to a food exporter and became the largest producer of rice outstripping the states of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab which had previously held the status.

Between 1977 and 1980, Basu oversaw the identification of nearly 1 million acres of ceiling surplus land and its subsequent redistribution. The number of landless rural households decreased by 35% during this period.

The Basu government began the process of "democratic decentralisation" in West Bengal by amending and implementing the provisions of the Panchayat Act. On 4 June 1978, local body elections were resumed after 14 years and the first direct elections were held to elect 56,000 representatives from 15 zila parishads, 324 panchayat samitis and 3,242 gram panchayats in West Bengal. The successful implementation of panchayat raj in the state is also noted to have played an integral part in the identification and redistribution of ceiling surplus land,

Among the more prominent measures initiated by the new government was that of Operation Barga. Introduced in 1978, it was a comprehensive and radical measure for land reforms which was further formalised through two legislation in 1979 and 1980. The operation sought to actively identify and record bargardars (trans: sharecroppers) by present occupational status without any reliance on ancestral records, producing official documentation for enforcement of the rights of bargardars to crop share from landlords and priority rights to lands in cases of both voluntary sale of land and forced sale of ceiling surplus lands. The implementation of the operation is noted to have improved the social status and security of tenancy of bargadars as well as decreased economic inequality.

The Left Front government also identified 247,000 acres of readily reclaimable lands mostly in the Sundarban area (Ganges Delta) for the resettlement of 136,000 agriculturist refugees from East Pakistan. Under the tenure of Bidhan Chandra Roy, many of the refugees had been relocated to refugee camps in Dandakaranya and the Left Front government had taken up their cause for resettlement in West Bengal. however the implementation of the resettlement process turned lackluster and was bottle-necked with revised priorities for environmental protection in the Sundarbans. He was one of the most powerful personality of the Left front after becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal and was known to be the Chief artist of the Communist politics not only in West Bengal, but also in the whole India. Ahead of the 1982 assembly elections, the Left Front had gained three new members; the Communist Party of India (CPI), the West Bengal Socialist Party (WBSP) and the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP). In the wake of the 1980 Gorkhaland movement, a poll boycott campaign took place in the Darjeeling hills with the slogan "No State, No Vote". Organizations calling for a poll boycott included the Pranta Parishad and the Gorkha National Liberation Front of Subhash Ghisingh. Voter participation in Darjeeling stood at 59.40%, compared to the statewide 76.96%. CPI(M) emerged as the sole party of relevance in the hills to oppose a separate Gorkhaland state. CPI(M) won three out of the four assembly seats in the Nepali-dominated areas, the fourth going to an All India Gorkha League candidate (contesting as an independent). Some of the older, smaller Left Front constituents were uncomfortable with the expansion of the alliance, claiming that CPI(M) was diluting it politically. There were also disagreements on distribution of ministerial portfolios after the expansion of the alliance. Though due to his irresponsibility in rehabilitiating 1971 Bangladeshi refugees and refusal to address the rise of anti-Bengali sentiments in Assam and other Northeaster states like Meghalaya (see Beh Dkhar movement) and Tripura (see Mandai massacre) saw his popularity decrease.

In the second term as the Chief Minister of state he gained popularity for his work for the landless peasants and providing them land and also among intelligentsia. The rise of Mamata Banerjee in the 1980s was under the Second Chief Ministership of him and was known to have a good allies with her. And he continued to make a second Chief ministership like the first one by giving the theory of Communism and working in the Land Reforms Act and also to complete the demand of the Gorkhas, especially in Darjeeling and near by regions.

Third term (1987–1991)

In 1987 West Bengal Election in West Bengal, Basu held the office for the third time as the Chief ministers of West Bengal after the win of CPM and their allies. Basu's party made the third win by securing a complete majority for third time in Bengal's history, and the Left front secured 187 in the election and defeating Indian National Congress and made his mark to Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

After being sworn in as the Chief Minister Basu continued his work in the major work for which he was elected was that to change the Land Reform and he is said to be one of the best administrators in the history of West Bengal for the work. In 1989, Basu led Left government in a controversial decision, halting the teaching of English language for Primary schools. The controversial decision received protests from intellectuals. The move was later termed as another "historic blunder".

In the 1990s when the government of VP Singh cleared the ways of Mandal Commission there was Mandal Commission protests of 1990 in West Bengal and also the silence of Basu triggered him at that time as there was a big problem as the CPI (M) was popular among both the classes of the society and CPI (M) supported the verdict.

Fourth term (1991–1996)

Even after the controversy of Mandal Commission and its protests in 1990 Basu managed to be sworn as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the 4th time consecutively, setting a record. The term of the assembly elected in 1987 lasted until February 1992, but the West Bengal government asked the Election Commission of India to arrange the election at an earlier date. On 28 November 1991, Basu superseded Bidhan Chandra Roy's 14 - year tenure to become the longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal, a record which he has held ever since at 23 years, 144 days.

Jyoti Basu's fourth term was hit with two major resignations - that of Information and Culture Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 1993 over the issue of corruption and that of Land Minister Benoy Choudhury in 1995 over the same issue.

Fifth term (1996–2000)

In 1996 he was elected as Chief Minister for an unprecedented fifth times consecutively in the 1996 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. Basu seemed all set to be the consensus leader of the United Front for the post of Prime Minister of India but the CPI(M)'s highest decision-making body refused to endorse Basu's prime-ministerial ambitions. This was Basu's last tenure as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Basu resigned in the year 2000 leaving a legacy as the longest serving Chief Minister of any Indian state, until Pawan Kumar Chamling surpassed his record in 2018.

Shortly after coming to power, it came to light that in its previous term, the state government had illegally leased out around 160 waqf properties in the state to private real-estate developers and land contractors without following the due process. Basu denied all allegations and questioned the veracity of the report. The next year, the Basu government was hit with the 'Treasury Scam' in which it was revealed in response to a PIL filed in the Calcutta High Court by Mamata Banerjee that throughout Basu's 4th term, the state government run treasuries in the districts had siphoned off a total of Rs 55,000 crore of public money to personal ledger accounts (meant for payment of excise duty) held by CPI(M) partymen and another amount of Rs 2,500 crore sent by the Central government for rural development had been diverted into these accounts in the run-up to the 1998 elections of the state panchayats. However, the government steadfastedly refused any investigation into this, and denied any wrongdoing on its part. However a CAG report revealed that during Basu's 4th term, central funds of the amount Rs 1,800 cr to 2,500 crore annually allotted to the state by the central government had been regularly diverted to personal ledger accounts held by CPI(M) officeholders in rural government. On the very same year, it was revealed that Basu had used the Chief Minister's discretionary powers to illegally allot real estate in multiple locations of Salt Lake locality of East Kolkata at extremely cheap prices to various people, including his own brother-in-law and three cabinet ministers (Fisheries Minister Kiranmoy Nanda, Co-operatives Minister Bhakti Bhushan Mandal and Minority Affairs Minister Mohammed Amin).

Basu was personally shocked at the victory of state Bharatiya Janata Party (whom he would derisively call 'a party of barbaric and uncivilized people') president Tapan Sikdar from Dumdum constituency in the 1998 general elections, defeating 3 time CPI(M) MP Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee. The rise of BJP in the state forced Basu's government to address the issue of illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims into the state.

Basu once proposed to make Bengali compulsory for any government job exams under state government, but this faced criticisms from Atal Bihari Vajpayee lead National Democratic Alliance at the centre, who called it unconstitutional and a harm to the linguistic minority groups of West Bengal. Railway Minister of that time and West Bengal Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, initially did not support the proposal. Under his period, Bengali was introduced as a court language in the Calcutta High Court

Proposal for Prime-ministership

Jyoti Basu was proposed for the post of prime minister four times.

In 1990, following the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani at his Ram Rathyatra rally at Samastipur on orders of then Chief Minister of Bihar & Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, BJP declined support to the National Front Government led by V. P. Singh. During the political crisis, INC chief Rajiv Gandhi sent proposal to Jyoti Basu to be the Prime Minister of India. But CPI(M) declined it, because the party refused to cooperate with the Congress, which it saw as a bourgeois organisation. due to unavailability of majority at the parliament. The Indian National Congress (INC), with a substantial 140 seats, declined to head the government.

Consequently, along with Janata Dal as the head, the left parties (i.e. CPI(M), CPI) and other smaller parties like Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Asom Gana Parishad, Tamil Maanila Congress, and Telugu Desam Party formed the United Front, which was supported by INC from outside. About the selection of Prime Minister from United Front, Vishwanath Pratap Singh from Janata Dal rejected the proposal of being Prime Minister. He suggested that Basu should be made the Prime Minister of the United Front government. RJD's chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also supported the proposal. The CPI also supported the proposal. The proposal was taken to CPI(M) by former CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. The Polit Bureau of CPI(M) met in a meeting. But having no conclusion due to differences, it forwarded the issue to the Central Committee after a voting. Through a meeting in Central Committee on May 14, CPI(M) declined the offer saying the party was still not in a position to dictate its policies and would not be able to get them implemented by a coalition government. They also stated that it would involve joining hands with "bourgeois" outfits like the Congress. In the words of Basu, "yes, I still think that it was a historic blunder because such an opportunity does not come. History does not give such an opportunity." The CPI said that Jyoti Basu as Prime Minister was 'worth-trying'. and was said to have been personally satisfied on hearing about Sikdar's defeat in the election.

The 18th congress of CPI(M), held in Delhi in 2005, re-elected Basu to its Politburo, although he had requested acceptance for his retirement. On 13 September 2006, his request for retirement due to age was turned down by the CPI(M), the general secretary Prakash Karat stated that the party wanted that Basu should continue till at least the 2008 congress. In the 19th congress held in early April 2008, Basu was eventually dis-included from the Politburo, although his membership in the Central Committee was not revoked. He was also granted the designation of Special Invitee to the Politburo, a form of emeritus status within the CPI(M).

Death

On 1 January 2010, Basu was admitted to AMRI hospital (Bidhannagar, Kolkata) after he was diagnosed with pneumonia. On 16 January 2010, it was reported that he was suffering from multiple organ failure and that his health condition had become extremely critical. Seventeen days after being taken ill, he died on 17 January 2010 at 11:47 am IST. Biman Bose announced with tears, "Jyoti Babu has left us."

thumb|255x255px|Condolences by [[Manmohan Singh (right) and Sitaram Yechury (left)]]

The death was followed by public mourning on an unprecedented scale. Draped in the national flag, Basu's body was escorted through the streets of Calcutta on a gun carriage. However, the time schedule went awry in his last moments as lakhs of people thronged the streets of central Kolkata to pay their last respects. Police and volunteers wore a helpless look as a sea of people poured in from every possible corner of the city. The Army escorted the cortege from the State Assembly to the Maidan through Red Road. At Moharkunja Park, arrangements for the state funeral had been made. The army buglers performed the last post as twenty one Gurkha troops fired a 21 volley rifle salute. A day of Mourning was declared nationwide and President Pratibha Patil along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed their condolences.

Being a communist, Basu had pledged to donate his body and eyes for medical research on 4 April 2003 at a function organised by Ganadarpan and Susrut Eye Foundation in Kolkata and not to be burned at a crematorium according to Hindu funerary customs. His eyes are donated to Susrut Eye Foundation. He is survived by his son Chandan, daughter-in-law Rakhi, grand daughters Payel (Mallika Basu), Doyel (Bithika Basu) and Koyel (Juthika Basu), offspring of his first daughter-in-law Dolly (separated with son Chandan in 1998), and grand son Subhojyoti, offspring of daughter-in-law Rakhi. Basu's body was kept at 'Peace Haven' for those who wanted to pay their respects. His body was handed over to SSKM Hospital, Kolkata for research on 19 January 2010 around 4:50 pm IST after a guard of honour at the nearby Moharkunja park (formerly, Citizens' park). The hospital authority is considering preserving his brain.

Reactions and tributes on his death

Basu's death was reacted with grief across the country and in international. Many famous personalities bade their gratitude and condolences in social media and attended his funeral. Some of their statements are listed below:

Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh reacted to his death, "He was a powerful regional voice in the national political scene and had proved to be one of the most ablest administrators and politicians of independent India."
Former Home Minister and Finance Minister of India, P. Chidambaram stated that "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." Before that he was MLA from Baranagar seat 6 times.

{| class="wikitable"

|+Election of 1952-1996

!Election

year

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held

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| 1952