I feel orphaned

He was an authentic voice that gave clear guidance.

Lalu Prasad, RJD leader.

I MET Jyoti Basu for the first time after I became Chief Minister in March 1990. Of course, I had heard about him as the redoubtable Marxist Chief Minister of West Bengal right from my early days in politics in the 1970s, but there was no personal interaction until I had the opportunity to run the government in Bihar.

Those were the days of intense anti-communal, anti-Hindutva struggles and Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet was involved in bringing all secular forces together on a broad platform for national unity and integration. I and my party were involved in a series of mass awareness programmes in the same direction, and we joined hands. As part of this, a mass rally was convened in Patna. Jyoti Basu was invited to that rally and for the first time I found the great leaders charisma in action. He did not need to make any special efforts to show his special personality. The very presence, serious and statesmanlike, was enough. From that day onwards our relationship grew, on both political and personal fronts.

For Jyoti babu and his party, empowerment of the people was essentially through the medium of class struggle. The strategy employed by us socialists and supporters of the empowerment of Dalit and Other Backward Classes was different. While the majority of his colleagues did not approve of our strategy, he did say even at a couple of public meetings that our line had its merits. And, of course, on the issue of secularism and anti-communal struggles, we were always together. I still remember he was one of the first persons to call and congratulate me on October 23, 1990, when the Bihar police stopped the dangerous Ram rath yatra led by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani. You have acted boldly in the larger interests of the nation. We are with you, he said on the phone.

There was something reassuring about the way he talked to you, either in person or on the phone. This was a quality that he shared with Comrade Surjeet. Both gave you the kind of reassurance that a father would give his children in a personal or professional crisis. But they had different styles. With Surjeet there was greater camaraderie and even friendly banter. Nothing of that sort with Jyoti babu. His interactions were not overtly emotional, nor were they high-sounding theoretical pulpit-talk (bhashan-baji); his was an authentic voice that gave clear guidance and direction. I still remember the manner in which these two senior leaders supported and advised me throughout the February 1999 crisis following the dismissal of the Rashtriya Janata Dal government in Bihar. Both the leaders contacted me separately to say the same thing: that the then BJP-led National Democratic Alliance governments decision was not legally and politically tenable and, hence, I should immediately launch an aggressive mass agitation. I did exactly that and their sagacity was proved when the then President K.R. Narayanan sent back the NDA Ministrys proposal and forcing them to rescind the decision.

Even after Jyoti babu retired from politics, I used to meet him whenever I visited Kolkata. One meeting I had with him when I was Union Railway Minister is etched firmly in my memory. He was unwell then too and was in hospital. When I met him, he specifically congratulated my administrative skills in the Railway Ministry and asked me to go forward boldly with my initiatives. Such encomiums from political doyens are extremely encouraging. That is why I feel sometimes that with the passing away of leaders such as Jyoti babu and Surjeet, political activists like me have become orphaned.

Venkitesh Ramakrishnan