Jyoti Basu: The true leader

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-01-25/india/28139100_1_jyoti-basu-chief-minister-basu-jyoti-babu

yoti Basu's Speech on 19th congress

http://www.jyotibasu.net/?q=node/27

A barrister by profession, Basu also influenced his party to give outside support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in 2004. He is survived by son, Chandan, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. His wife Kamal had died seven years ago.

'Comrade' Basu almost became the Prime Minister after the 1996 Lok Sabha elections at the head of a Centre-Left coalition but missed the crown because his CPI-M rejected the offer saying it did not want to participate in the government in which it did not have a majority. Basu himself famously said later that his party's decision was a 'historic blunder.'

A pall of gloom descended in Left front-ruled West Bengal after the news of Basu's death spread while political leaders across the spectrum hailed the Marxist patriarch as a 'great son of India'. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Basu was a powerful regional voice in the national political scene.

The charismatic 95-year-old Basu fondly called Jyoti Babu, one of the tallest leaders of the Communist movement who strode the political scene like a colossus for over six decades, breathed his last at 11:47 am at the AMRI Hospital where he was admitted with a pneumonia attack on January one, 2010.

BIRTH CENTENARY OF COMRADE JYOTI BASU STARTS ON AND FROM 8TH JULY, 2013 TO 8THJULY, 2014

Jyoti Basu, in his lifetime, became a symbol for the Left, democratic and secular forces in the country. The Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) calls for a year-long celebration of the birth centenary of Jyoti Basu beginning from July 8, 2013. The centenary will be observed by holding meetings, seminars and a special campaign to propagate the life and contributions of this invaluable leader.

Under Jyoti Basu’s Chief Ministership, West Bengal became a bastion of communal harmony and secular values. He played a leading role in advocating the restructuring of Centre-State relations and for establishing a federal system. Jyoti Basu was a leader who creatively applied Marxism to the concrete Indian conditions and made an immense contribution in charting out the course for the Party.

Jyoti Basu became Chief Minister of the Left Front government of West Bengal in 1977 – a position he occupied continuously till 2000. Before that, he was twice Deputy Chief Minister in the UF governments between 1967 and 1970. Under his leadership, the government undertook the implementation of land reforms and the establishment of the panchayati raj system.

Jyoti Basu played a key role in the development of the Communist Party in West Bengal and at the all-India level. He was the Secretary of the Provincial Committee of the CPI from 1954 to 1960. He became a member of the Central Committee of the CPI in 1951. When the CPI (M) was formed, he became one of the founder Polit Bureau and Central Committee members.

Jyoti Basu joined the Communist Party 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. Since then, in his long parliamentary career, he became the role model for all Communists and progressives on how to work in parliamentary institutions and serve the people.

Jyoti Basu, in his nearly seven decades of work as a Communist, left an indelible imprint on the political map of the country.

JYOTI BASU, AJOY MUKHERJEE AND OTHERS AFTER OATH TAKING BY 1ST UNITED GOVERNMENT IN 1967

July 8, 2013 marks the beginning of the birth centenary of Comrade Jyoti Basu, an outstanding leader of the Communist Party and the Left movement in India.

JYOTI BASU: ‘WE FELT SAFE UNDER HIS RULE’ - Gurpreet Singh

JYOTI BASU: ‘WE FELT SAFE UNDER HIS RULE’ - Gurpreet Singh

He placed Kolkata under curfew and his party supporters patrolled Sikh-dominated areas to prevent violence, says Gurpreet Singh.

AS the news of Jyoti Basu’s death spread, Comrade Sohan Singh Aittiana received an angry call. The caller was upset that he was not made part of the Sikh delegation that visited the leader a few days before he passed away. Jyoti Basu was undergoing treatment at the city’s AMRI Hospital then, and the delegation had called on him to wish him speedy recovery. Aittiana, who is associated with the CPI(M) and is a well-connected transporter in Kolkata, led the delegation.

The caller’s anger reflected the affection and popularity that Jyoti Basu had among Sikhs living in West Bengal. The community’s leaders remember him as a saviour, who did not let Congress-led goons murder them during the 1984 pogrom.

Violence broke out in States ruled by the Congress following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Indira Gandhi was murdered by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who were seeking revenge for the controversial Operation Blue Star, which was launched to flush out extremists who had fortified the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of Sikhs, under the command of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Jyoti Basu, who was in Delhi then, sensed the danger to the Sikh community and rushed to West Bengal to ensure their safety. While Delhi and other parts of India witnessed large-scale murder of Sikhs, he was determined to protect the community in his State.

“He placed Kolkata under curfew, and his party supporters were seen patrolling Sikh-dominated areas to prevent violence,” said Aittiana, adding that Sikhs have always supported Jyoti Basu and his party since then. “It can be described as his legacy. It is a different matter that many Sikhs of the new generation have started identifying themselves with other parties.”

Another Sikh from Kolkata, Surjit Singh Walia, recalled those days when he narrowly escaped a mob attack. “I temporarily migrated to Punjab out of fear. But Basu’s determination brought me back. We always felt safe during his rule,” he said. The curfew and the patrolling by CPI (M) cadres prevented any major devastation except for a few incidents of stone throwing and vandalism. Ten deaths were reported in the State.

“Compared with several thousands in New Delhi, only a few lives were lost in West Bengal,” said Bachan Singh Saral, the leader of the Sikh coordination committee who spearheaded the campaign for justice for the Sikhs murdered during the violence. “The Sikhs were indebted to Basu and they always stood behind his government.”

Akhtiar Singh, former president of the Komagata Marup Shaheed Ganj Gurdwara at Bajbaj near Kolkata, recalled that some Congress workers had tried to engineer violence but Jyoti Basu’s government controlled the situation swiftly. “The new generation Sikhs have not seen what we were through.”

Hardev Singh Grewal, the editor of Navin Parbhat, a Punjabi daily published from Kolkata, said that Jyoti Basu would always be admired and missed by the Sikh community. “Owing to his strong will to protect our community, there was no mass exodus of Sikhs from West Bengal.”

Significantly, the Punjab government declared a holiday to mourn the death of the veteran Communist leader. The Sikhs in Kolkata, who are mainly in the transport business, have roots in the Malwa region of Punjab. A senior Akali leader from Punjab, Kuldeep Singh Wadala, remembers Jyoti Basu as a trusted ally in the Akali agitations, including the one for a Punjabi-speaking State and the protest against the Emergency. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal travelled to Kolkata to pay his last respects to Jyoti Basu and wrote for The Tribune a piece praising the deceased leader.

Ironically, about 300 communists were murdered in Punjab by the pro-Khalistan separatists in terror incidents. Lakhvir Singh, who drove this writer to different parts of Kolkata, had a big sticker of Bhindranwale pasted on the rear window of his car. Despite this glaring contradiction, he acknowledged the position of Jyoti Basu during 1984. “The Sikhs will always remember him as a saviour,” he said.

Gurpreet Singh is with Radio India Vancouver. He worked with Indian Express and The Tribune before emigrating to Canada in 2001. He was travelling in West Bengal when Jyoti Basu was under treatment.

Courtesy: The Frontline