He knew how to cut through it

EMINENT economist and litterateur Ashok Mitra served as Finance Minister in Jyoti Basus government from 1977 to 1986. In an exclusive interview to Frontline, he recalled his experience of working in the first Left Front government in West Bengal led by the CPI(M). He said that the ideal time for Jyoti Basu to be Prime Minister would have been 1985 if it were not for the tragic assassination of Indira Gandhi. We were so full of hope, and part of the reason for this hope was the ambience of romantic adventure for a cause to serve the people, he said, describing his feelings about being part of the 1977 government. Excerpts:

What in your opinion were the striking features of Jyoti Basus leadership?

Jyoti Basu knew very well the art of the possible one is running the State administration within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, and one is running it on behalf of a party that is pledged to the revolution. That was the dilemma, and Jyoti Basu knew how to cut through it. In the process, I believe, he also persuaded his party to accept the limits of his ability.

One should have no illusion that with limited resources and limited scope for open-ended decision-making, one can offer the people only limited forms of relief; and this was where Jyoti Basu was categorical we have to prove a point to the rest of the country besides our own people that a Left-minded administration, despite the limits in which it has to carry on, can provide clean, efficient, and even-handed administration.

The other point I would like to stress is his humanism and civilised ways. He was a leading figure in the party, who had no doubts what the ultimate political goal is, yet still knew in a multiparty arrangement one must believe in the doctrine of give and take.

He understood the scenario as it stood: Two big national parties with perhaps overlapping class interest, and apart from the three States where the Left is strong, we have in other States a wide range of political formations of different backgrounds, heterogeneity of class and caste interest, etc.

But to offer a challenge to these two big national parties, he realised that it was important to get along with disparate elements who did not necessarily believe in his ideology, who, in fact, were a little scared of his ideology and long-term goals; but he knew that in the short run one can still fight issues by inviting them to join one.

Both as a leader and as a man, Jyoti Basu always went straight to the point. He would cut through to the key elements of any knotty problem and come to a decision. He believed in delegation of work and would give you full freedom to get the job done.

Jyoti Basu was very vocal about the assertion of States rights vis-a-vis the Centre.

Yes, at Basus initiative a lot of advances were made in the early 1980s with the whole movement of restructuring Centre-State relations. Indira Gandhi, despite her authoritarian ways, had to pause and think and rethink on this issue. She got away with it in Kashmir when she got rid of the National Conference regime; she tried it a second time within a couple of months in Andhra, and that was the time when she really played with fire. But she learnt her lesson, was forced to calm down, and that, I believe, is one of Jyoti Basus greatest triumph in his chief ministerial career.

Do you also agree that it was a historic blunder for Basu to turn down prime ministership?

Now, this is a quirk of history. Around October 1984, the Third Alternative was going strong and everybody had enormous respect for Jyoti Basu, whether it was Ramakrishna Hedge or N.T. Rama Rao; Indira Gandhi was on the back foot, prices were rising. Then suddenly her assassination took place.

Now, if that had not happened, and if the elections had come as scheduled in 1985, and if the Third Alternative remained coherent and Mrs. Gandhi continued to miscalculate, then I think she would have been defeated, and the main force would have been the Third Alternative and not the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]. In that situation, the natural choice for Prime Minister would have been Jyoti Basu.

This is where I differ with some of my comrades who feel that perhaps we missed the bus in 1996 when the offer came to Jyoti Basu on a platter. I feel it was already too late. You see, between 1984 and 1996, the Janata was broken into smithereens, the politics of caste reared its head, so to build a coherent alternative and make it stick would have been extremely difficult in 1996, even for Jyoti Basu. Let us also not forget that in 1996, he was 82 years old.

But a dozen years back, had that tragedy not taken place, perhaps the country would have got Jyoti Basu as the Prime Minister, and the biggest gain for the country would have been that this scandal of economic liberalisation could have been avoided. And the fact that we have become a vassal state of the United States could also have been avoided.

You were there in the government right from 1977 when the Left Front came to power. What was the atmosphere like within the government?

It was great fun. We toiled hard and we thought we would change the political map of India from the example we would set in West Bengal. You know about the land reforms, the distribution of land among the landless peasants, ensuring tenural rights for sharecroppers, the establishment of the three-tier Panchayati Raj, etc. We wanted to set up an administration that would develop from below.

We were so full of hope, and part of the reason for this hope was the ambience of romantic adventure for a cause to serve the people. And as I said before, he was such a civilised man.