The genius of Jyoti Basu
N. Ram
Jyoti Basu’s genius lay in a domain where theory, vision, polemic,
and the ideological characteristics and organisational resources of a
revolutionary movement encountered the challenge of working with the
masses and winning them over.
Diminutive Jyoti Basu, who outlived most of his contemporaries, was a
man of towering political stature India’s pre-eminent and most
charismatic Communist leader at the mass level and one of its most
illustrious statesmen of the past century. His political career,
representing the second-generation Communist experience, spanned an
astonishing seven decades (1940-2010).
The unforgetable Basu |
As the longest-surviving of the nine founding members of the CPI(M)
Polit Bureau and as independent India’s longest-serving Chief Minister
by far (June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000), he made game-changing
contributions at the political, ideological, and administrative levels
in West Bengal and a significant qualitative impact at the national
level, transcending the regional limitations of the Left’s base and
influence and winning him the offer of the Prime Minister’s job in 1996.
In fact, many people, including and notably the political economist
Lord Meghnad Desai, believe Jyoti Basu was the best Prime Minister India
never had, although it is clear to me that given the Left’s, and the
United Front’s, modest numbers in Parliament and the total dependence on
the Congress party for support, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s
majority decision to turn down the offer was well-reasoned and sound.
Everyone knows that Jyoti Basu famously characterised the decision as a
“historic blunder”.
His subsequent public explanations made it clear that this was not on
account of any personal disappointment but because he reckoned that
having a Communist veteran, even for a while, at the helm in New Delhi
would have been a real opportunity (which was not going to be repeated
for quite a while) to introduce and project the party’s programme and
policies to the people of India.
It is impossible to say from this distance how a Jyoti Basu prime
ministership would have turned out and whether any surprises might have
been in store. But it seems at least likely that India’s pre-eminent
Communist leader would have been a sacrificial Prime Minister.
Game-changing
At any rate, this episode must not be allowed to become a distraction
from the real significance of his game-changing helmsmanship of one of
India’s largest and most important States. Along with another
second-generation Communist veteran, Pramode Dasgupta, a genius of
organisation, Jyoti Basu was the chief architect of the Left Front
edifice and the remarkable socio-economic and political changes it
brought to the lives of millions of working people in West Bengal.
Indeed the Left Front experience constitutes something of a world
record: no Communist-led government in any other part of the world can
boast such a succession of electoral victories. These victories have
also been decisive, giving the Left better than a two-thirds majority
and the CPI(M) an absolute majority each time in the Assembly. Not given
to exaggeration or overstatement, Jyoti Basu allowed, matter-of-factly,
that being elected for a five-year term seven times in succession (five
of those under his direct leadership) was “not only an achievement
without precedent in India but also in the history of parliamentary
democracy in the world.” But he always emphasised that credit for this
must go to “the conscious, struggling people” of the State.
The highlights of Jyoti Basu’s legacy as Chief Minister are well
known: land reforms, which benefited millions of sharecroppers and other
peasants and helped consolidate a rural class base that proved quite
unbeatable over three decades; the democratisation and vitalisation of
panchayati raj institutions; the establishment of the Haldia
petrochemical complex, West Bengal’s biggest industrial initiative; the
creation of an atmosphere of communal harmony and secularism across a
large State; clean, transparent governance; and political stability of a
new kind.
A man of great words |
There were significant under-achievements in the fields of education
and public health and in terms of industrial development. But Jyoti Basu
was not one to cover up deficiencies or shortcomings and in the last
decade of his life he spoke candidly about what might have been achieved
during his 23 years at the helm – had there been the necessary
understanding backed by a concentrated effort.
Chief Ministers
The foundations for Jyoti Basu’s distinction were laid much before he
became one of the country’s most important Chief Ministers. An educated
and sophisticated man, trained in Britain to be a barrister, he joined
the Communist Party when it was illegalised, worked in the trade union
movement and in mass organisations, faced state repression, and was
schooled in tough struggle before emerging as one of the top leaders of
the communist movement – and after the split, as one of the founding
members of the CPI(M)’s nine-member Polit Bureau. A byword for courage
and steadfastness, he was also famous for his cool; he brushed off
assassination attempts, which brought about no noticeable change in his
style of mass politics. Some CPI(M) leaders – most importantly, E.M.S.
Namboodiripad, B.T. Ranadive, and M. Basavapunnaiah – distinguished
themselves as exponents and developers of Marxist theory. Some others –
most importantly, P. Sundarayya, Pramode Dasgupta, and Harkishan Singh
Surjeet – contributed specially to party-building and organisational
affairs. Jyoti Basu’s great strength was in another domain – where
theory, vision, polemic, and the ideological characteristics and
organisational resources of a revolutionary movement encountered the
challenge of working with the masses and winning them over. His genius
lay in this immensely difficult interface, where many an ideal, many a
leader, and many a political ambition has failed to achieve notable
success.
As a leader and administrator, he was reputed for his clarity of
vision, his decisiveness, his gift for focussing on central issues and
tasks, and his practicality. He was sometimes called a ‘pragmatist’, a
label (employed approvingly in some quarters) that he amusedly but
emphatically rejected. “They’re saying we are pragmatists,” he remarked
to me in an interview for Frontline in early 1995.
“‘Because Jyoti Basu is a pragmatist!’ I said, ‘I’m not a pragmatist.
I’m a Marxist.’” A man of laconic speech and dry wit, he often sounded
disarmingly simple, especially in interviews. From time to time, this
trait was deliberately misinterpreted, by anti-Communist journalists as
well as ultra-‘left’ dogmatists, as a lack of ideological and political
depth. But it was essentially a gift for cutting through confusion,
obfuscation, casuistry, and cant. His neat, ordered, and nimble mind,
and the habits and style acquired over more than half a century of
revolutionary work (where straightforwardness with the masses was highly
valued) always worked against the Muddle.
He never tired of countering the misapprehension or distortion put
out in the press about the character of the Left Front experiment. “It
is not a socialist economy and system operating here.
We have not made tall promises. Whatever we can do, we have told
them. One thing we cannot do, that is, bring about fundamental changes.
Because we are not a republic of West Bengal! We are a part of India.”
This remark, made to me in an interview, was typical.
Tough odds
In this perspective, the Left Front, and the CPI(M), which leads it,
continue to work against tough odds. They work within the constraints of
the prevalent system of political economy to advance the interests of
the working people, to provide relief to them, and to educate them on
what is and is not feasible. They work to uphold the cause of democracy,
secularism, and socialism, which give the Left Front its defining
orientation.
What they can do, and have been doing very effectively, is (in the
words of Jyoti Basu) to “bring about such reforms by which people will
feel that somebody is looking at them, and that we are trying to do our
best. Even if we don’t succeed, we take the people into confidence and
tell them why we have not succeeded in certain spheres and that they
should understand.” But this must not be allowed to become a rationale
or excuse for doing little. On the contrary, in the Jyoti Basu vision,
West Bengal under the Left Front would be failing the people if it did
not take “the fullest advantage” of the space and opportunities
available today in the changing political, and to some extent policy,
environment.
Those who could not appreciate this duality in the situation would
always find themselves inside the Muddle. Nevertheless, he understood
better than anyone else that the enthusiasm to promote industrial
development, to make up for the effects of past neglect and
discrimination, and to change the rules of the economic game in the
State could go too far. Going along a new policy track usually involved
some excesses of enthusiasm and overcorrection. But the balance needed
to be constantly maintained, which required monitoring and critical
scrutiny of the experiment from a baseline of clearly defined Left
principles and objectives.
And what about the recent time of troubles for the Left Front? Jyoti
Basu’s habit of taking the long view and his resilience and essential
optimism were reflected in his observation that the recent electoral
setbacks suffered by the Left in West Bengal were because “we could not
take our message properly to the people.” He had no problem in
admitting, “Besides, in certain areas we made mistakes.” Most
significantly, he observed in his interview to the CPI(M)’s daily
newspaper, Ganashakti, a month after the results of the 2009 Lok Sabha
polls were announced: “It is the people who determine the course of
history. There can be some who misunderstand us temporarily, but if we
keep going to the people repeatedly and make ourselves worthy of their
love, they will most certainly understand us.
Uncompromising discourse
We will have to again draw to our side those who opposed us in the
last panchayat and Lok Sabha elections.” Everyone, including Western
journalists, understood that Jyoti Basu was an unusual kind of political
leader and man, reputed for his integrity and straightforwardness, his
discipline and work ethic, and his decisiveness in governance. A master
of civilised if, at the core, uncompromising discourse, he was respected
and listened to across the political and ideological spectrum on key
policy matters, national and international.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat was certainly not being
hyperbolic when, in his tribute, he singled out the last of the
second-generation giants for teaching Communists “how to work and serve
the people in parliamentary forums in order to bring about changes in
public policy” and declared “there will be none like Jyoti Basu again.”
It is indeed the end of a heroic era.
The Frontline |