PAYING TRIBUTES TO COMRADE BASU DISALLOWED

KOLKATA: In a show of political vendetta of the worst kind, the TMC government of West Bengal created obstacles in commemoration of the 98th birth anniversary of communist leader and former chief minister Jyoti Basu, as former Left Front MLAs and ministers were barred from entering the West Bengal assembly on Sunday, July 8, to observe the occasion. This was despite the leader of opposition, Suryakanta Mishra’s request to the speaker, Biman Bandyopadhyay, in this regard. Basu’s birthday falls on July 8.

Surprisingly, the Trinamul-led government had ‘observed’ Basu’s birth anniversary on Friday, July 6 --- two days before the date, even after strong reactions from different quarters. The Left Front MLAs had therefore chosen to stay away from the July 6 event, arguing that the ruling party was dishonouring the departed leader by observing the occasion two days in advance.

What happened on Sunday afternoon was that when Left leaders reached the north gate of the assembly building, the Marshalls said former MLAs could not enter the house without permission. Leader of opposition Suryakanta Mishta then called up the speaker, Biman Bandyopadhyay, and asked him to allow the former MLAs to go inside the assembly building.

“Are the former MLAs criminals?” Mishra asked the speaker over phone while informing him that some of those who had assembled were elected way back in 1971. But when the speaker denied to entertain Mishra’s request, the Left leaders decided to garland a portrait of Basu outside the assembly building’s north gate.

This was because Left Front MLAs and former MLAs chose to pay their tributes to Jyoti Basu on the pavement outside the gates of the assembly building where a photo of him was placed. Misra stood on a chair and spoke in the occasion. He said, “Jyoti Basu was the voice of democracy. The ruling party in West Bengal is afraid of this very democracy. But we will take the ideas of Jyoti Basu to the people.” 

Describing the developments as “unparliamentary,” former speaker Hasim Abdul Halim, who also stood outside the assembly buiding, said that it was “disrespectful to the democratic norms of the house.” Halim recalled that it was here that millions had paid their last tributes to Comrade Jyoti Basu after his demise.

Subhash Naskar, RSP MLA, expressed his strong displeasure against the attitude of the ruling party.

Denied entry, Left pays tribute to Basu at House gates

TNN, Jul 9, 2012, 04.29AM IST

KOLKATA: Two days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee prematurely celebrated former chief minister and CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu's birthday in the assembly, his comrades had to garland him outside its gates on the actual day of celebration.

The Left parties had planned to offer flowers to the painting of Basu in the assembly. Accordingly, around 15 leaders gathered at the assembly gates at 10.30 am on Sunday. After leader of the opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra arrived, they tried to enter the house. But the securitymen stopped them, saying only sitting MLAs would be allowed entry.

A heated exchange followed, with the securitymen pleading that they were "following instructions" of the Marshall. Among those who were not allowed in were former ministers Debes Das and Manab Mukherjee and former MLAs Rabin Deb, Rajdeo Goala and Sudhangshu Sil. Former speaker Hashim Abdul Halim was allowed in with the sitting MLAs.

When Mishra failed to convince the Marshall, he called Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay and pleaded with him. "I am requesting you to instruct the Marshall to let us in. As former MLAs, they have been given identity cards and enjoy the privilege of entering the house just like sitting members. I had taken verbal permission from you for this morning's programme that we had planned in memory of Jyoti Basu. Why should we submit a list of people entering the Assembly? They are all former MLAs," Mishra said on the phone.

But permission was not granted. The "insult" was obviously not taken kindly by the former MLAs and ministers who decided to register their protest against such "unconstitutional" behaviour by the ruling party. A framed photograph of Basu was brought from the 'Ganashakti' office, placed on a chair and the Left leaders offered their respects at the gate of the assembly house.

"This is absolutely shameful. We have been forced to offer flowers to Jyoti Basu on his birthday at the gates of the assembly. The speaker simply refused to listen to reason. The government celebrated Basu's birthday two days in advance and has now prevented us from offering our respects on the day itself. No one could imagine that things would come to such a humiliating pass," fumed Mishra.

Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay justified himself, saying Mishra had not submitted a formal application seeking permission for the programme. "We had asked for a list of names. Why could he not provide us with that?"

Former Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, however, was not impressed. "How can a speaker prevent former ministers and MLAs from entering the assembly? They bear identity cards that allow them this privilege," he said.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya, too, called the act "shameful". "They should have been allowed to go in and offer their respects. The ruling party has not behaved properly," he said.

Congress leader and Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury called it a "farce". "I won't be surprised if tomorrow they say that since Jyoti Basu is a former chief minister, we should take his painting out of the House!" was his snide remark.

On the other hand, state panchayat and PHE minister Subrata Mukherjee criticized Mishra for not taking prior permission. He explained that since the assembly is closed on Sundays, the state government had organized the programme to pay tribute to Basu on Friday at the behest of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. "CPM MLAs refused to participate in it. They just sat there and sipped tea," he complained.

According to him, "Mishra is seeking cheap publicity through media attention."

"By paying their tribute outside the assembly, the Left leaders have dishonoured Basu," he said. "When Basu was alive, no CPM leader would go to Indira Bhavan with flowers to wish him on his birthday. It was only Subhas Chakraborty and his wife Ramala who celebrated it. The other CPM leaders would say that communists do not celebrate birth or death anniversaries," Mukherjee reminded.He claimed the Left leaders organized this event only to counter Friday's state-backed programme at the assembly.

"Former Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim is also well aware that prior permission of the speaker is needed to keep the assembly open on a holiday. Moreover, certain security measures have been installed decision for which was taken in an all-party meeting. So entry has been restricted now," Mukherjee said.

"It's just drama. If Mishra had any respect for Basu, he would have visited Indira Bhavan where the CPM patriarch stayed till his last days. But how could Mishra have got publicity had he not enacted the drama in front of the assembly gates," Mukherjee lashed out.

Meanwhile, CPM state secretary Biman Bose said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee, immediately after the government was formed, had said that the Assembly would be for the Opposition - a spirit that reflects democracy. "However, there is no reflection of that," Bose said, reacting to Sunday's incident. "Whatever happened today was shameful, and it is not clear which way the government is going."

He said birth anniversary celebrations could "begin" a few days ahead, but to observe the actual date of birth has always been the custom. "What are the students learning from all this? This is disrespectful", Bose said.

Manmohan says Mamata assented to Teesta deal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses the 

media on board his special flight to Delhi on Wednesday.

By Praveen Swami

THE HINDU, September 8, 2011 (On Board air india one)

Indian negotiators still unaware of West Bengal's special objections to water deal, highly placed sources say.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the West Bengal government assented to a strategic water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh before backing out of it over the weekend — and thus forcing India to resile on its international commitments.

Dr. Singh said he had consulted with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for over a month on the details of the treaty, asking National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon “to seek guidance from her.” “I was told that all technical details were sorted out,” Dr. Singh told journalists on-board his flight home from Dhaka.

Last week, the Trinamool Congress raised objections to the draft treaty at a meeting of the Cabinet's Political Affairs Committee. “I again sent Shankar Menon to visit Kolkata,” Dr. Singh said. “He had a meeting, and what the Chief Minister said, and what Mr. Menon understood, he took to Dhaka, and the arrangement was made.”

But, Dr. Singh continued, “some other factors came up and therefore Ms. Banerjee said that she will not accompany me to Dhaka. “It was only subsequently,” he insisted, “that I learned her disagreement was on account on what we were attempting to do on the Teesta.”

Indian negotiators, a highly placed government source told The Hindu, have still received no explanation for West Bengal's eleventh-hour decision to reject the draft water-sharing treaty — making it impossible for them to explain the country's stand to their Bangladesh counterparts or to lay the foundations for an alternative agreement.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed said on Tuesday night that New Delhi and Dhaka had “reached an understanding on water-sharing in the Teesta and Feni rivers” — the first official acknowledgment of just how close negotiators were to closing a deal.

The agreement, diplomatic sources told The Hindu, envisaged that India would be entitled to just under half the Teesta's waters, and called for both sides to carry out joint studies on how much was available before setting up a bilateral body charged with administering the treaty.

However, New Delhi was forced back out of the deal just hours before the Prime Minister's arrival in Bangladesh, after Ms. Banerjee refused to travel with him to Dhaka. Ms. Banerjee has made not offered an explanation of precisely what objections she has to the proposed treaty, but sources in her party said the draft presented to Bangladesh differed from the one she discussed with Mr. Menon.

The Prime Minister declined to discuss Ms. Banerjee's claims, saying he did not want to “enter into a disputation.”

The troubled Teesta

Even though farmers in Bangladesh will be the immediate beneficiaries of the Teesta treaty, it has huge implications for India. The treaty, which will provide a template for agreements to share the waters of 53 rivers with Bangladesh, will also help India establish principles for pressing its claims to rivers originating in China.

India and Pakistan began talking about the Teesta's waters soon after Independence. The talks went nowhere. In 1961, India adopted unilateral plans to build a barrage on its side of the border, raising concerns downstream.

Following more years of failed talks, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a consensus statement in 1976 which directed both countries to arrive at a “fair and expeditious” agreement. Even though the India-Bangladesh joint rivers commission held over a 100 meetings, a deal could not be hammered out.

Bangladesh completed construction of the Dalia barrage, the country's largest irrigation project, in 1979. The Dalia project was intended to use the Teesta's waters to irrigate some 540,000 hectares of land in the country's northern rice-growing heartlands. From 1985, the 4,500-km canal network meant to carry the Teesta's waters to farmers opened its gates.

The farmers got the water they desperately needed — but then, just a few years later, the canals ran dry.

In 1993, farmers in West Bengal began to get water from the Gazoldoba barrage in Jalpaiguri, which India had built on the Teesta. The Indian project supplied water for 228,000 hectares — farmers who used their votes to ensure that their needs were met before Bangladesh.

From 1996, scholars Yoshiro Higano and Muhammad Fakrul Islam have noted, India's “exclusive control of the Teesta's water in the dry season at Gazoldoba made the Dalia barrage useless.” In the monsoon, they said, releases of water from the barrage caused “floods and bank erosions, leading to serious suffering”.

In 1997, though, a draft treaty on the Teesta was hammered out, a year after the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, helped steward a landmark treaty on the Ganga. “He was a great man,” the Prime Minister acknowledged today.

Little progress was made in the decade and a half since, breeding bitterness in desperately-poor Bangladesh where farmers are hit by crippling water shortages in low-rainfall years.

Basu's demise marked 2010 in West Bengal

December 31, 2010

West Bengal witnessed 2010 the demise of its tallest political figure Jyoti Basu. Basu passed away on January 17 at the age of 96 in a huge loss for his party, CPI(M), but also the people of Bengal.

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Bangla to fulfil Basu wish- Barudi house to be turned into library and museum

By ANANYA SENGUPTA

The Telegraph: Thursday , August 19 , 2010

Dhaka, Aug. 18: The two-storey house on the Meghna’s banks where Jyoti Basu spent a part of his childhood and kept returning to in later life will be turned into a library and a museum in keeping with his wishes.

The plan, an initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, is now awaiting the approval of Basu’s family in Calcutta, whom the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner has been asked to contact.

“This is an excellent proposal,” the late communist leader’s son Chandan Basu said in Calcutta. “I had visited my ancestral home near Dhaka along with my father when Gen. H.M. Ershad was the (Bangladesh) President. I shall be delighted if the Bangladesh government goes ahead with its plans.”

Basu’s family lived in the house, set on 2.04 acres in Chowdhury Para in Barudi village, about 20km from Dhaka, till the early 1940s before moving to Calcutta. Basu was born and educated largely in Calcutta but seems to have been deeply attached to his ancestral home with its pond and leafy premises.

Local journalists said the veteran communist had visited the house during his last trip to Bangladesh in 1999 and expressed a desire to have it converted into a library.

Basu had spent some time at the house during his January 1987 and November 1997 visits too, and regularly asked about its condition till his death in January this year.

Soon after it came to power, the Awami League-led coalition government had decided to turn the house into a museum. The plan was to have Basu inaugurate it after its completion, but that was not to be.

The government’s move is expected to attract tourists and help the economy of Barudi village, where hundreds of Hindus and Muslims had gathered after Basu’s death to pray for the soul of a “great man of the subcontinent” who would speak to them “like a commoner”.

No blood relatives of Basu now live in Barudi, and caretaker Shahidullah, 75, and his family are the only current occupants of the house. Shahidullah’s mother Ayatunnessa once looked after Basu, the youngest of three siblings after Surendra Kumar Basu and Sudha Datta Basu.

Basu had charmed Barudi during his trips when he was Bengal chief minister.

“He spoke to ordinary villagers like us and asked about our welfare as though we were very close to him,” Mohammad Rafiq, a 60-year-old farmer, had said after his death. “He behaved as if he was a commoner like us; that’s how sincere he was.”

The house has two bedrooms and a drawing room on the top floor and two rooms and a meeting space on the ground floor. It has been taken over by the cultural affairs ministry and put under the care of the archaeology department.

Jyoti Basu, 95, Leader of Communists in India, Dies

January 18, 2010

By JIM YARDLEY, New York Times

NEW DELHI — Jyoti Basu, a powerful leftist leader who dominated politics in the state of West Bengal for more than two decades and nearly became India’s first Communist prime minister, died in Calcutta on Sunday. He was 95.

Mr. Basu’s stature in West Bengal was evident in a huge public outpouring of concern in recent days as his health steadily deteriorated. Anxious crowds gathered outside his Calcutta hospital, local newspapers carried front page updates on his condition and a litany of leading Indian politicians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, made calls to him. He died of multiple organ failure, according to Indian news reports.

Mr. Basu was known as a savvy political survivor, skilled at building coalitions and forging consensus, whose biggest policy initiatives were sweeping land reforms in West Bengal. The initiatives distributed land to more than two million landless families and, in turn, established a leftist coalition known as the Left Front that dominated state politics for three decades until showing recent signs of weakening.

Mr. Singh praised Mr. Basu as a pragmatic, visionary politician whose death “marks the end of an era in the annals of Indian politics.” Citing his land initiatives as visionary, the prime minister also described Mr. Basu as “one of the most able administrators and politicians of independent India.”

Born July 8, 1914, in Calcutta, Mr. Basu was raised as a doctor’s son in an aristocratic family. He later studied law in London, where he embraced Marxism before returning to Calcutta in 1940. He then joined the Communist Party of India and began organizing railroad workers in the last years of the British raj.

After India’s independence in 1947, Mr. Basu was elected several times to the local assembly. When the Communist Party of India split in 1964, he was among the founders of the more radical Communist Party of India (Marxist). He became chief minister in 1977 as the leader of a Left Front coalition and held that position, the most powerful in the state, until 2000.

He nearly became India’s prime minister in 1996 as the head of a national coalition. But hard-liners in his own party rejected his selection, arguing that leading a coalition government would betray Marxist principles and would not allow him to carry out Marxist policies. Mr. Basu would later call this decision a “historic blunder.”

His land initiatives won national praise, but West Bengal’s industrial policies were criticized during his tenure. Today, the popularity of his CPI-Marxist party has suffered severely amid concerns about corruption and bad governance.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

Gopal Gandhi calls on Basu, bids adieu to Marxist veteran

KOLKATA, December 13, 2009: Outgoing West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi on Sunday called on veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu at the latter's residence in a farewell call on his last day in office.

Gandhi, who arrived at around 11.45 am at the former chief minister's Indira Bhavan residence at Salt Lake, exchanged pleasantries during his 10-minute visit. He told Basu about his departure for Chennai tomorrow. "I remember the days when we met in South Africa ... We often remember Kamal-di (Basu's late wife)," Gandhi told the veteran leader.

Basu, aided by his personal assistant Joykrishna Ghosh, told Gandhi that he found it difficult to carry on a conversation as his sight and hearing have dimmed with age. Gandhi and Basu presented bouquets to each other. Later, the governor told newsmen that he had first met Basu in London in 1992. "I have the privilege of having his guidance in many matters, especially in the last five years," Gandhi said. PTI

Trinamool, Maoists jointly unleashing violence: Jyoti Basu

KOLKATA, 1 NOV 2009: With the crucial by-election to 10 Assembly seats in West Bengal barely nine days away, CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu today charged Trinamool Congress with joining hands with Maoists to unleash violence in the state.

"Everyday our workers are getting killed. Common people, police personnel, doctors, nurses are also slain. Our party office is burnt. Trinamool Congress and Maoists are doing this together. They are taking law into their own hands," the nonagenarian leader said in a statement. Describing the coming Assembly by-polls as "very important", Basu said, "Democracy is under attack, peace is disturbed. We had restored peace and democracy in 1977 with people's support".

Seeking support for the Leftits, Basu said, "Our result in the last Lok Sabha election was poor. Some of our sympathisers and friends had voted against us. It is not their fault. We could not take our view points properly to the people". Basu's statement, which came after the CPM-led Left Front's successive poor showing in the Lok Sabha, Assembly by-elections and municipal polls, also admitted that there were some mistakes on the part of party.

Kowtowing to imperialists unacceptable to Left: Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, Aug 31 (IANS): Claiming that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is “surrendering to the imperialists” and framing policies adversely hitting the poor, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu Monday said the Left parties will staunchly oppose such moves.“Whatever be the impediments, the Leftists will work in the interest of the workers and the common people. We will never accept the way the central government is surrendering to (the) imperialists,” the nonagenarian Basu said in his written message at a rally organised by West Bengal’s ruling Left Front to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a mass movement against food shortage.

“Due to the policies pursued by the centre, poor people are being adversely hit. Peasants are committing suicide. Food crisis is also escalating in the country,” said Basu, who was chief minister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977. He stepped down in 2000 for health reasons.
He said prices of essentials, hoarding and black marketing are on the rise, and asserted that the Left parties had built up agitations against the maladies.

“We will never agree to the strategies aimed at dividing the poor,” he said in the missive, read out by Left Front chairman Biman Bose. Attacking the state’s opposition parties and Maoists for stalling development by perpetrating violence and triggering lawlessness, Basu appealed to the Left workers to mobilise the people against such atrocities.

“Work for the people. We should not lose faith in the people, even those who have turned against us. Many have voted against us in the last general election. We have to correct our mistakes. We have to bring these people back to our fold,” the leader said. “I have confidence that the people of our state will never pitch their lot with opportunistic alliances and parties devoid of policies and morals,” said Basu.

Jyoti Basu discharged from hospital

KOLKATA, 19th July,2009 : Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu was discharged from hospital here on Sunday evening, seven days after admission for “transient loss of consciousness.”

The medical board of seven specialists met on Sunday morning, reviewed his condition and decided to discharge him, according to a hospital bulletin. They will visit him at his residence for the next couple of days.

Hospital authorities said Mr. Basu’s condition would be continuously monitored.
A mini- medical unit, comprising an ECG monitor, defibrillator and pulse oximeter, was set up at his residence. A doctor and paramedic staff would be present round-the-clock and blood tests and other investigations conducted.

JYOTI BASU CONVALESCING - ON WAY TO RECOVERY

KOLKATA: Elderly Communist leader Jyoti Basu, who has just turned 96 years of age, was taken ill on the morning of 12 July and he was shifted forthwith from his Salt Lake residence to a nearby medical institution.

The usual run of medical tests found nothing substantially wrong with the leader after he was admitted for observation and further tests.

A day later, he has partaken of meals of semi-solid food and is recovering well. As a convalescent, he has been kept in the ICCU unit and will in due course be shifted to a cabin.

A marvellous feature that the medical board discovered while going through the report of his latest CT scan that the small haematoma that Jyoti Basu had developed back in October last year has gone on the recession, remarkable for person of his age.

Among others, Bengal state secretary of the CPI (M) Biman Basu and Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee dropped in for a view of the ailing CPI (M) Polit Bureau member.

Mamata calls on Basu

KOLKATA: 14 Jun 2009-Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called on Communist Party of India (Marxist) patriarch Jyoti Basu at his Salt Lake residence, saying that she wanted to pay a courtesy visit to a senior leader.

The CPI(M) patriarch congratulated the Trinamool Congress chief on her election victory and said he wanted her "co-operation". He also hoped that the Trinamool Congress would play its role of an Opposition. “I will not be there to watch the next election.” Basu told Mamata.

"I told him (Basu) I had no political issues. He told me he would not be there in the coming Assembly elections. I felt someone had prompted him to say these words," Coming out of Basu’s house, Banerjee told mediapersons: “I wanted to talk politics with Basu. But the presence of someone inside his room prevented me. I simply wished him a speedy recovery... I admire Jyoti Basu, his health is better and therefore I decided to meet him.” Mamata, was accompanied by Mukul Roy and Partho Chattarjee.

It was Ramola Chakraborty, wife of the State Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty, who was present inside Basu’s room. She left only after Mamata’s departure. Ramola, when contacted, said she did not know about Mamata’s visit as it was unscheduled. As Basu’s personal secretary is on leave she has been visiting him at least twice a day, she said, adding that she just happened to be in the room when Mamata came in.

Mamata last visited Basu on June 5, 2007, to discuss Nandigram and Singur on the latter’s invitation.

Later, Mamata called on former chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray and briefed him about the law and order situation in the state.

Jyoti Basu skips voting after suffering a fall

Kolkata, 13th May,2009 : CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu, whose advanced age forced him for the first time to stay away from casting his vote, made enquiries about the Third Front from Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat who was in the city to cast her vote.

The nonagenarian leader, who suffered another fall in his bathroom early this morning, wanted to know the prospects of the Third Front alliance. Ms. Karat told The Hindu that she found the senior leader fully alert when she called on him at his Salt Lake residence in the morning. “He wanted to know about the position of the Third Front and what my assessment was. I told him that we will have to wait till May 16 to know the results.” Mr. Basu was also keen to find out the seat-by-seat position in West Bengal, she said.

“I found him very alert and cheerful although he had suffered some pain because of his fall,” Ms. Karat said. West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi also called on Mr. Basu. “He is trying to get over the fall, he is frail but as always extremely alert, and full of humour and wisdom,” he said.

Sources at Mr. Basu’s residence said that he suffered some minor injuries on his shinbone because of the fall. He was examined by his physician, who saw no cause for worry. He was watching TV every now and then to stay abreast of the developments, his close aide said.

Mr. Basu was hospitalised in September 2008 following a head injury he suffered after a fall. Medical tests revealed that he had developed a blood clot in his brain. However, he was released after being kept under observation and medication at the hospital as surgery was not favoured in view of his advanced age.

The party veteran said earlier this week that he would not be able to venture out to exercise his franchise for the first time, during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

His vote lay in the Barasat constituency, where Sudin Chattopadhyaya of the Forward Bloc faces Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar of Trinamool, among others.

Right after the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, he regretted that he would not be able to campaign for his party because of his infirm health. Video recordings of his speech were played at some of the elections meetings.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said that it appeared to her that Mr. Basu’s not voting in the final phase was an expression of his “no confidence” in the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Acknowledging that Mr. Basu was unwell, she said this was the first time that he did not vote. “We respect his age. He could have used a wheelchair or gone in an ambulance to vote [had he wanted to],” Ms. Banerjee added.

Mr. Basu, who felt that Ms. Banerjee’s remarks did not warrant a rebuttal, said he had dedicated his entire political life to the party. He hoped that the Left Front candidates would be victorious in the Lok Sabha polls.

Jyoti Basu regrets not participating in poll campaign

Kolkata, April 6: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu Monday regretted not being able to participate in the election campaign for the Left Front in West Bengal, saying he was “physically unfit” to do so.“This time I could do nothing for the Left Front as I have become physically unfit to participate in poll campaign,” Basu told reporters at his Salt Lake residence here, while launching a website for Laxman Seth, the CPI-M candidate from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.

“I came to know from Left Front chairman Biman Bose that our party cadres are working hard across the state so that our candidates can win in the election,” the veteran leader said.“We have to carry on with the victorious legacy of the Left Front in this April-May elections also. I wish that Left Front candidates would win in the coming general election,” Basu added.

At 95, Basu is still in demand in West Bengal

By Soudhriti Bhabani

Kolkata,(IANS): Failing health and advancing age have forced former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, now 95, to keep away from the Lok Sabha election campaign. But he is still eagerly sought after by Marxists ahead of their toughest electoral battle.

For the first time the ruling Left Front has plunged into the campaign minus the veteran Basu, who for nearly a quarter century presided over the state government led by his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). Even after his voluntary retirement from day-to-day party activities, the CPI-M still exploits Basu's acceptance at the national level to woo voters for the April-May elections. Basu's picture towers over all other leaders on the campaign website launched by the party, of which he is the only living member of its first politburo. "He is definitely feeling sad because he could not attend campaign meetings for the first time. It's an exceptional year as we couldn't see him deliver speeches," Basu's personal assistant Joykrishna Ghosh told IANS.

The CPI-M and its three smaller Left allies brace for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal against the joint forces of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress in what is expected to be a tough fight. It is precisely now that the CPI-M badly needs Basu, who presided over West Bengal from 1977 until stepping down in 2000, the longest innings for any chief minister in India. "He is an intelligent human being. He understands his health condition very well," Ghosh said, adding he regularly seeks reports on state as well as national developments from party cadres. Born on July 8, 1914, in Kolkata to a wealthy family, Basu took to communism in London. On his return to India, he joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) and got engrossed in trade unions. Basu made his debut in electoral politics in 1946. He was elected to the state assembly 11 times, losing only once in 1972.

After the CPI split in 1964, he joined the CPI(M) and was elected to its Central Committee and Politburo. Since then he has adorned those two posts. According to CPI-M sources, Left Front chairman Biman Bose briefs Basu about party decisions every Friday. "Basu is also kept updated about every small development in the party through notes. We send political messages to him through our messengers," a CPI-M source told IANS. Basu slipped and fell in his house last year and suffered an internal haemorrhage in the head.

Since then, he rarely steps out of his Salt Lake home. At a Left Front meet last month, a recorded speech of Basu beamed on giant screens was received with loud applause. "Though he is not with us physically in the campaign, his recorded speeches goaded the people to elect Left Front candidates last time," said Basudeb Acharya, leader of the CPI-M in the outgoing Lok Sabha. "His presence would have been important to all of us but this time it was not possible because of his health," Acharya, the CPI-M candidate from Bankura, told IANS. In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2004, Basu visited only Kolkata and its adjoining constituencies. Even that is not possible this time. (Soudhriti Bhabani can be contacted at soudhriti.b@ians.in)

JYOTI BASU NAILS ADVANI’S ‘COVERT’OUS REMARKS

KOLKATA: Senior CPI (M) leader Jyoti Basu rebutted on 30 March BJP supremo Lalkrishna Advani’s remark to a news agency that he had met Jyoti Basu ‘covertly’ prior to the so-called ‘rathayatra’ that claimed the lives of hundreds across its bloody path. Jyoti Basu admitted to the meting quite freely and said that the meeting was overt rather than covert.

Jyoti Basu previously had a word with the CPI (M) Polit Bureau and with the then general secretary comrade EMS before proceeding to meet Advani. The then Prime Minister V P Singh, too, had earlier prevailed upon Basu to speak to Advani towards dissuading the BJP leader from the ‘rathayatra’.

In the exchanges that followed between Basu and Advani, Basu told the latter that the purported ‘rathayatra’ would create disharmony and even rioting. Advani would not listen to Basu’s advice that he aborts the ‘programme.’

Later, Basu also met A B Vajpayee and asked him to prevent the ‘rathayatra’ but nothing came out of this meeting, too. Basu added to say when the late PV Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister Basu along with comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet had telephoned him to initiate measures so that the Babari Masjid was not pulled down. The late Rao promised to do ‘something’ about the issue but in practice did nothing.

Incidentally Jyoti Basu recalled that when as Prime Minister A B Vajpayee came to Kolkata and met Basu he asked the Bengal chief minister as to the reasons why he, Basu, called the BJP a party that was ‘uncivilized and barbaric.’ Basu had replied that he said this because BJP was engaged in orchestrating riots in Gujarat, killing members of the minority communities with impunity, and that it had pulled down the Babari Masjid, causing riots to break out. After this strong repartee, Vajpayee had held his silence.

CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu, 94, is a star in cyberspace

Kolkata: The former West Bengal chief minister outperforms his younger Left colleagues in cyberspace. Jyoti Basu's frail health does not permit him to take part in raucous rallies and public meetings. Yet, of all his Communist colleagues, this spare nonagenarian, who was chief minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, is the biggest crowd puller -- even among cyber communists.

Basu's recently recorded appeal to party cadres and voters for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was uploaded on the party's special election website through YouTube on March 17.Till Wednesday morning, 2,309 viewers accessed Basu's video on YouTube. The video also received five stars -- the highest rating given to a YouTube video.Although Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat, at 60, is closer to the younger generation than Basu, his recent video does not record so many hits. Karat's opening remarks during the release of the party's manifesto on March 17 were uploaded on YouTube, but had received just 26 hits till Wednesday and no rating.

The full version of Karat's video, along with politburo member Sitaram Yechury's [Images] sermon on the economic crisis, has been uploaded on the party's website through Google video. Since Google doesn't provide details about the number of "hits" for its videos, the popularity of these versions cannot be established.A video of Karat's speech on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, however, remains the most popular contribution of a Left leader on YouTube, drawing 7,089 views till Wednesday morning. But this was posted more than a year ago.Some of the CPI(M)'s cyber-savvy workers or fans regularly upload videos of the party's top leaders on the Net. The party also provides video speeches on important issues in its special poll website -- www.vote.cpim.org.

Apart from Basu, Karat and Yechury, two other politburo members -- Brinda Karat and Md Amin -- have also found space on the party's internet initiative to woo voters. Brinda Karat talks about food security and high prices and Md Amin laments over the fate of the working class under the United Progressive Alliance. Basu no longer holds an official position in the party, the largest of the four Left parties in the current Lok Sabha, but is a "special invitee" to the politburo. Yet, even as leaders like Prakash Karat, Yechury, current West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Brinda Karat and Pinarayi Vijayan share the maximum burden of the main campaign in different parts of the country, Basu remains a pivotal character in the party's run-up to the polls.

Other top leaders may provide loads of points, counter-points, sharp political attacks and ideological dimensions to politics in the Lok Sabha election campaign, but no one can match the 94-year old Jyotibabu in providing the much-needed emotional stimulus to its cadres and his trade-mark incomplete sentences.Party insiders fondly recall an incident during the 2004 elections. After the BJP managed to win the Dumdum Lok Sabha seat (where Basu himself was a voter) in 1999, sending shockwaves through the CPI(M), Basu led the mission to win back the Left bastion in 2004.

Since the party had suffered the loss due to severe in-fighting, Basu addressed a joint meeting of the rival factions and said, "I may not live till 2009. Before I die, I wish to see Dumdum back in the hands of our party." The appeal did the magic and the rivals worked together to ensure a massive victory of the CPI(M) from that seat in the 2004 election.The party, which generally avoids eulogising personalities, has posted Basu's picture on the masthead of its election site. "Jyoti Basu is the only member of our first politburo of 1964 who is still alive. He has been hailed as the living legend of the party.

So, there's nothing wrong if we display his photo on our site," Yechury said at the launch of the website last week.And for Jyoti Basu, confined to Indira Bhawan, Kolkata, history has run a full circle. The man who once spearheaded the infamous anti-computerisation movement in the state, a position he subsequently reversed, is now the biggest hit in the virtual communist world on the web.

Source: Business Standard

BENGAL LF GIVES A CALL TO THE MASSES FOR A BIG ELECTORAL TRIUMPH

KOLKATA, 16th March, 2009: A big rally of LF workers was held on 16 March in the Indoor Stadium at Salt Lake. Addressing the rally was the Bengal LF leadership. Jyoti Basu spoke via a video recording of his speech. JB had been in indifferent health for some time in the recent past. His address was on display on four gigantic video screens.

IMPORTANCE OF THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE
JB centred his arguments on the emergence of the third alternative to both the reactionary Congress and the communal BJP. He marked the LS battle as the battle to decide the nation’s future for the next half-a-decade. The third alternative must be elected to office for it will work for the masses unlike the two big bourgeois political outfits. The new governance will follow an independent foreign policy. It will also ensure that secularity marks the government’s policy outlook.

In this task, said JB, the emergence of strengthened Left was of critical importance. Here Bengal must play a stellar role like Kerala and Tripura that are the Red bastions. The Congress-led UPA has betrayed the people. Except for the presence of the Left in numbers outside of the union government, a presence that prevented a rampaging liberalisation and privatisation, the world economic recession would surely have overwhelmed India. Entire arrays of public sector enterprises, surely privatised, would have been in deep débâcle. JB ended his speech by calling upon the politically-conscious people of Bengal to ‘defeat the unprincipled alliance of Congress and Trinamul Congress in Bengal, and make Left victorious by bigger margins than in the past.’

OPPORTUNISTIC ALLIANCE MUST BE REJECTED
State secretary of the Bengal CPI (M) Biman Basu noted the pendulum-like movement of the Trinamulis between the Congress and the BJP. Biman Basu was certain that the basic purpose of all three outfits, whether or not stuck to each other in various combinations out of sheer political opportunism, was to attack the Left in general and the CPI (M) in particular. Biman drew attention of the LF workers to the unholy rôle of the foreign powers and their local agencies to influence the elections against the emergence of the Left and the third alternative. The reactionary-sectarian-foreign agencies alliance could be defeated by augmenting farther the front of the common man, of the people, of the masses.

BIG WIN FOR THE LEFT A POLITICAL IMPERATIVE
Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that the Left Front would have to secure its strong base that was Bengal. A big win here would also ensure that the country was not led astray, or pushed to the brink of ruination, especially for the poor. The strong presence of the Left would augment the third alternative and would also make sure that the ruling classes were not able to do a noxious sale out of the nation’s integrity and sovereignty to imperialist forces and their running mates. The third alternative, Buddhadeb pointed out, did not speak of individuals but pro-people policies. With the combined voting percentage of the Congress and the BJP in the last elections to the Lok Sabha less than 50%, Buddhadeb noted, the se forces could do but little that witness the people reject them farther in the upcoming polls. Other speakers included leaders of the LF constituents.

No decision yet on post-poll support to Cong.: Basu

KOLKATA, 27th February, 2009 : The Leftfront may face a tough battle in West Bengal if the Congress and Trinamool join hands in the coming Lok Sabha elections, party patriarch Jyoti Basu on Friday said while maintaining that it has not taken any decision on extending support to the former after the polls.

"We cannot say it at this stage. No decision has been taken by the party in this regard," 95-year-old Basu said when asked if the CPI(M) would extend support to the Congress after the parliamentary polls.

Basu, who came to attend the CPI(M) State secretariat meeting at the party's Alimuddin Street headquarters, told reporters that the party would face a tough battle if Congress and Trinamool Congress forged an alliance in the LS polls in West Bengal and might get less seats compared to what it had won in the 2004 election.

Asked what strategy the party would adopt in the coming election, he replied, "We will go to the people and explain". The State secretariat meeting assumed significance as it was authorised by the CPI(M) State committee to approve the party's list of candidates for the LS polls.

Jyoti Basu attends CPI(M) meeting after six months

Kolkata, Feb 20: Former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, 94, surprised everyone at the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) headquarters at West Bengal, when he turned up to attend their weekly party meeting Friday after a gap of six months. Basu had last attended the CPI-M state secretariat meeting at the party headquarters in Alimuddin Street in 25th August, 2008. He had a fall at his Salt Lake residence early September(4th) and a blood clot was detected in his brain.

After the accident, he had stopped visiting the party headquarters due to ill-health. Also, for the first time since the CPI(M) led Left Front came to power in West Bengal in 1977, he could not attend the Brigade Parade Rally on Feb 8.

“Basu was anxious to attend the party meetings. Hence, he could not stop himself from coming to the weekly meeting,” CPI(M) Central Committee member Shyamal Chakraborty told mediapersons here. Basu told the meeting: “I can’t live without the party and if I don’t attend the meetings, won’t be able to know what’s happening here. That’s why, I decided to come to Alimuddin Street (party headquarters).”

Top CPI(M) leaders, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state secretary Biman Basu, said they were only too happy to have Basu at the meeting and discussed with him not only his health but party activities. Basu was chief minister from June 1977 to November, 2000.