With the death of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, West Bengal and the Communist movement in India have lost one of its tallest leaders. Bhattacharjee was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for a long time, and had to be hospitalised a number of times in the past few years. He was 80 and is survived by his wife Meera Bhattacharjee and son Suchetan.
Bhattacharjee, who served as the Chief Minister of the State for two consecutive terms (2000-2011), was widely considered the epitome of the Bengali bhadralok (gentleman) and was as well known for his intellectual accomplishments as he was for the grace and dignity he lent to the high-decibel politics in the country. He had a dream of transforming the investment-starved Bengal into an industrially resurgent State; and though he did not succeed, the vision that he left behind is still as relevant and needed in the State today, as it was 24 years ago when he first became the Chief Minister.
His death marks the end of the most significant era in the history of the Left movement in the country which began with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front’s historic victory under the leadership of Jyoti Basu in 1977. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was one of the most important figures of that period.
Breath of fresh air
At a time when politics was considered the domain of dour old men, Machiavellian tacticians, demagogues and theorists, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was like a breath of fresh air. He wrote poetry, loved cinema and literature, translated works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and liked to wander around in book fairs. Those close to him say that he knew by heart more than 500 songs of Rabindranath Tagore. He had also written a number of plays, the most famous being his translation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, which he adapted to the Bengali milieu. The translation, titled Poka, was performed to wide critical acclaim.
But if there is one thing that history will remember Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for, it is the vision he had for an economically resurgent West Bengal. It was a vision he truly believed in and for which he suffered and fell from his pedestal. It would perhaps have been more politically convenient for him to maintain the status quo and not push for industrialisation in an investment-starved State, but Bhattacharjee’s inherent integrity and honesty would never permit him to compromise on what he felt was truly beneficial for Bengal. Ultimately, it was his way that proved to be the right path to follow.
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Even when he was being vilified by a section of his own party, he never wavered from what he believed in. There were grievous mistakes his government made when he was at the helm, and he always bore full responsibility for them. But for a while, he did give the people hope and something to dream about, and when that dream was shattered on the altar of realpolitik, Buddhadeb’s grief was more for the future of the State than for his own fall from grace and power.
When he first took over as Chief Minister of Bengal, after Jyoti Basu stepped down in 2000 after 23 years at the helm, Bhattacharjee had said: “It will be our effort to present to the people of West Bengal a dynamic, disciplined, responsive government, which will be corruption-free and transparent in its functioning.” His entire tenure was a constant effort to live up to that promise he had made.
In 2001, the CPI(M) returned to power with a new leader leading the battle. Even after 24 years in power, the Left Front won 199 out of the 294 Assembly seats. Buddhadeb’s ascension to the Chief Minister’s chair less than a year ago was seen to neutralise the anti-incumbency factor, as the change at the helm was perceived as a change in the regime itself. While some called it the people’s “last salute” to the legendary electoral career of Jyoti Basu, it cannot be denied that it was as much a hail of welcome to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Vision of industrially vibrant Bengal
The years between 2001 and 2006 witnessed the most glorious period of Bhattacharjee’s political career. His vision for an industrially vibrant Bengal had captured the imagination of not just the people of the State, but also the entire nation. Along with his colleague, the Industry Minister, the late Nirupam Sen, he set out to carve the way for Bengal’s economic turnaround, and in the process, became one of the most talked about political figures in the country. He was, in his own words, a “communist compromising with capitalism”, and thereby putting a “humane face” on liberalisation.
In reaction to this, there were differences in opinion within the party, and among certain hardline factions, Bhattacharjee’s efforts were looked upon with consternation. But he remained undeterred. “People think that I am on one side and my colleagues are on the other [on the issue of industrialisation], but that is not so. There are differences of opinion that are discussed and sorted out. This is a healthy practice,” he had said. Even if sections of his party did not agree with him, the people of the State certainly reposed their trust in his vision, and in the 2006 Assembly election, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led his party to its seventh consecutive victory, with the Left winning an overwhelming majority of 235 out of the 294 seats.
“Bhattacharjee was the quintessential Bengali bhadrolok—cultured, soft-spoken, well-read. Just as he remained a passionate Communist till the end of his life, in many ways he gave the impression of being a reluctant politician.”
Earlier, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Left had won 35 of the 42 seats in West Bengal. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had emerged as a poster boy for the Communist movement in the country, and one of the charismatic figures on the national stage. The phrase “Brand Buddha”, coined by the media, became a catchword for investment in the State. The mandate of the people gave him the strength and assurance to continue on his path, even in the face of opposition from a section of his own party.
But he was never one to take full credit for the electoral triumphs. “It is not a question of ‘I’. It is a question of ‘we’. I cannot claim that it is because of me that the urban voters started leaning to the Left. It was a collective effort and our Front could capture the imagination of the urban voters,” he had told Frontline after the famous victory in 2006. “…it was not a mandate for just Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. True, I led the election campaign and the electoral battle, but it was a mandate for the Left Front, for its programmes and policies. Individuals matter but only a little,” he had said.
Singur and Nandigram
However, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s dreams of industrial revival in Bengal were shattered soon after he returned to power in 2006. The State government’s programme of acquiring land for industrial purposes in Singur and Nandigram faced stiff resistance from those whose lands were being taken away, and the party that was once hailed for its land reforms was being projected by the Opposition as one that snatches land from the poor farmers and hands it over to industrialists. Singur was the site of Tata Motors’ prestigious Small Car Project that was expected to spearhead Bengal’s economic revival, and Nandigram was where a chemical hub was supposed to come up.
“We are right now in a transitional stage; based on our success in agriculture, we are moving towards rapid industrialisation. Agriculture alone cannot create new job opportunities and move the economy further. So, it is imperative to move from agriculture to industry; it is not agriculture versus industry,” Bhattacharjee had said. But somehow his words either did not trickle down to the masses or were misunderstood. The situation was further worsened when on March 14, 2007, 14 protesting villagers, including two women, were killed in police firing in Nandigram. The incident sent shockwaves across the country, and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s image took a severe beating. The following year, Tata Motors also shifted its factory out of Bengal.
The CPI(M) could never recover from the setbacks, as more trouble began piling up in different corners, including a growing Maoist menace in the Jangalmahal region (the contiguous forest areas in Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, and Jhargram districts) and a fresh call for a separate State of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills of north Bengal. With anti-incumbency sentiment mounting against the CPI(M) after more than three decades in power, there was nothing Bhattacharjee could have done to reverse the downward spiral of his party. In 2011, the 34-year-old CPI(M) government fell to a coalition of Trinamool Congress and Congress, and Bhattacharjee himself lost his seat in the polls. Even in defeat, Bhattacharjee remained a figure of enormous dignity and courage.
Quintessential Bengali ‘bhadrolok’
Born on March 1, 1944, in north Kolkata, literature and poetry was practically in Buddhadeb’s blood; his uncle was the great Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharjee. After passing out of Sailendra Sarkar Vidyalay, Buddhadeb graduated with honours in Bengali from Presidency College. It was while in college that he got involved with the Communist movement. He served as the State secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India [the youth wing of the CPI(M)] from 1968-1982, was elected to the State Committee of the party in 1972, the State Secretariat in 1982, and the Central Committee in 1985.
He served as the Minister of Information and Public Relations in the first CPI(M)-led Left Front government of 1977, after winning the Kashipur-Belgachhia Assembly seat. Though he lost in the 1982 elections, he returned to the cabinet in 1987, winning from the Jadavpur constituency. Bhattacharjee was to retain the Jadavpur seat till 2011. Prior to becoming the Chief Minister, Bhattacharjee was best known as Bengal’s minister for Information and Cultural Affairs, a post he held from 1987 until 1996. In 1996, an aging Jyoti Basu handed over to him the Home and Police department, paving the way for his successor. Three years later, Bhattacharjee was made Deputy Chief Minister, and in 2000, he took over the reins from Basu, when the latter stepped down for health reasons.
For all the power and respect that he commanded, Bhattacharjee remained a most modest, retiring person. Always clad simply but immaculately in his white dhoti and kurta, he was the quintessential Bengali bhadrolok—cultured, soft-spoken, well-read. Just as he remained a passionate Communist till the end of his life, in many ways he gave the impression of being a reluctant politician. For all his success in politics and his legendary status as a Communist leader, he felt most at peace amid books and music or watching a good film. It was under his ministership that the Kolkata International Film Festival was launched in 1995. All his life, even when he was Chief Minister, he lived unostentatiously in a two-roomed flat with his family in Palm Avenue in south Kolkata. He would repeatedly turn a deaf ear to the many entreaties to leave the tiny flat, whose damp environment exacerbated his COPD condition.
Time and again he showed he was not a cold, calculating political machine, but a soft, sensitive human being, who would not compromise on personal ethics and integrity. In 1993, he even quit the Cabinet over issues he felt he could not reconcile with, and for 13 months he kept a distance from both the party and the government. During that period, Bhattacharjee spent his time doing what he loved best—reading and writing.
Lasting legacy
He was also often a misunderstood figure. His natural shyness was sometimes misconstrued as arrogance, his retiring ways as standoffish, and his serious demeanour as churlishness. But in reality, he was a gentle, intellectually inclined individual who loved his privacy and was most at home when surrounded by books or a few close friends. Most people missed out on his wry, subtle humour which would quietly surface in interviews and in most unexpected moments. Talking to Frontline in 2006 about the upcoming Tata Motors project of manufacturing a car worth Rs.1 lakh, he suddenly turned to his press secretary sitting in a corner, and said, “Buy yourself one, and if you buy yourself one, get one for me as well.” A voracious reader and a prolific writer throughout his life, he continued to write as long as his frail health would allow him. His latest work was The Birth and Death of Nazi Germany published in 2017.
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The Left’s devastating loss in 2011 did not really dent Buddhadeb’s personal image. It is true his popularity had plummeted during the time of the anti-land acquisition movements in Singur and Nandigram, but his polished bearings and civilised manners were what people remembered of him after he was ousted from power. In spite of failing health, he was still looked upon as the most iconic living leader of the Left movement, and continued to remain a source of inspiration to the CPI(M).
Even though his health had forced him to retire from public life, the people realised that they still adored him and on those rare occasions when he would make a public appearance or say a few sentences, they would hang on to every word he would utter. In fact, so dependent was the CPI(M) on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s stature and reputation, that it released an AI-generated video of his (with his consent), ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, appealing to the electorate to vote out the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.
The fact that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could not succeed in achieving what he had set out to do will not be his lasting legacy. It was the fact that he had a vision and was willing to risk all for the sake of a dream he truly believed in; the fact that even at the height of his power he continued to live happily in his apartment filled with books; the fact that he led by example that one can rise to the very top in the game of power and still not lose one’s simplicity and integrity; the fact that he took both victory and defeat in stride and with the same kind of grace—that will be the lasting legacy, and a benchmark for all future leaders.
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