17 January 2010: Jyoti Basu, chief minister of West Bengal, died

Jyoti Basu, India’s longest-serving chief minister who memorably described his decision not to accept the post of prime minister in 1996 as a “historic blunder”, was born on 8 July 1914 in Calcutta in a middle class Bengali family. His death on 17 January 2010 marked the end of an era. Basu, who remained chief minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, was the country’s best-known Communist leader.

His father, a doctor, originally belonged to East Bengal (now Bangladesh). After studying in prestigious institutes like the St. Xavier’s School and the Presidency College, from where he secured a bachelor’s degree in English, Basu went to England to study law. Here he got involved with the Communist Party of Great Britain.

After he returned to India in 1940 he became the secretary of the Friends of Soviet Union and worked full-time for the Communist Party of India. He was initially given the task of maintaining links with underground Party leaders and work related to trade unions. He became the first secretary of the Bengal Assam Railroad Workers’ Union. In 1946 he was elected to the Provincial Assembly from the Railway Workers constituency. After this he rose to political prominence in West Bengal.

He became the leader of opposition in the state assembly in 1957. He led several movements, including that of rail labourers and teachers demanding higher wages. He became a Politburo member of the newly-formed Communist Party of India (Marxist) after the Communist Party of India split in 1964. Later he was appointed deputy chief minister in the United Front government of West Bengal.

However, in wake of Maoist violence, President’s Rule was imposed in West Bengal in 1971. The CPI (M), though, had emerged as the single-largest party in the assembly elections that year. In 1977 when the Left Front came to power with a much better margin, Basu was the natural choice for chief minister. He would hold the post for a record 23 years.

Land reform was one of the major policies of the Jyoti Basu government. He was also credited with restoring political stability in the troubled state. His record on other fronts such as industrialisation was mixed. Commenting on his reign in an editorial after his death, The Hindu wrote: “The highlights of his legacy as chief minister are land reforms, which benefitted millions of sharecroppers and other peasants, and helped consolidate a rural class base that proved quite unbeatable over three decades; the democratisation of panchayati raj institutions; the establishment of the Haldia petro-chemical complex; the creation of an atmosphere of communal harmony and secularism across a large State; and political stability of a new kind.”

After being chief minister for two decades, Basu said in an interview to the India Today magazine: “We carried out land reforms, something that no other state has done, except Kerala and Tripura. We created a strong base of local governments. We ensured elections at the local-body level every five years. I think we have done pretty well in most sectors, agriculture in particular . . . You need industry to draw people away from agriculture . . . But West Bengal is a highly congested state . . . The only land we have is under agriculture. To get land for industry we constantly have to find ways to compensate farmers.”

In 1996 Basu had the opportunity of becoming prime minister after a coalition was formed at the Centre by the Left and regional parties. But the CPI (M) decided against joining the government, instead providing support from outside.

Basu was himself in favour of joining the United Front government but the majority view in the party’s central committee was that it was better not to. In an interview to the journalist M.J. Akbar in January 1997, Basu said: “The minority thinking [in the party’s central committee] was: since we have the experience, we know these people, we can keep them together for as long as possible. If we were there we would see that the programmes would be somewhat carried out, much better than what they would do if we were not there in the government . . . Of course, personally, I tell you (genuine relief in laughter), the majority has saved me, personally, because this would have been too much of a burden for me. Because of my health, nothing else. But it is a political blunder. It is a historic blunder.”

Eventually, the Janata Dal’s H.D. Deve Gowda became prime minister.

In 2000 Basu resigned as chief minister, citing health reasons. The CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya became the state’s new chief minister. Basu remained the patriarch of the Left parties in the last decade of his life. In 2005 he was re-elected to the Politburo, though he had sought retirement. After 2008 he was made a Special Invitee to the Politburo.

He died on 17 January 2010 after suffering multiple organ failure. He was 95 years old. The senior journalist Subir Roy wrote in the Business Standard on 20 January 2010: “Basu was obviously more than party leader and chief minister. He conducted himself with grace and commanded respect. His personal probity and dignity made him stand out among the general run of senior politicians of his time in the country. The extra touch, which earned him the respect of those in high places, often came when he had to intervene, sometimes behind the scenes, to balance between the waywardness of a formidable agitational machine and the responsible role expected of a holder of high office.”

Also on this day:

1913 — Yadvinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala and Indian cricketer, was born 

1918 — Russi Mody, leading member of the Tata Group, was born

1945 — Javed Akhtar, poet, lyricist and scriptwriter, was born  

1950 — Honey Irani, scriptwriter and film actress, was born

1951 — Bindu, Indian film actress, was born 

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