Attack on Jyoti Basu: In Bad Taste...

Came across this 'attack' on the late Jyoti Basu by one Biswa Prasun Chatterji. I do not hold any strong political views, but I have never had a problem in appreciating what's good. As such, I liked Jyoti Basu - no, I never even met him - and admired him for several innate qualities. I find this estimate of Basu to be in bad taste and in need of rebuttal.

My rebuttal will shortly follow!

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Now that Jyoti Basu has passed away media is abuzz with paying tributes. Tributes for what? Converting West Bengal to Waste Bengal? Operation Barga (distribution of land to landless farmers by taking land from landed people)? Overall gloom and doom in present-day Bengal?

Or his foiled leadership in the third front that never even took off properly (Devegouda stayed for 2 years; I.K.Gujral for another 3 years leading to no big changes in India which were subsequently happening under BJP or Congress-led government; remember the golden quadrilateral plan or Pokhran II or Kargil?)? As I look back I see a whole generation of Bengalis in West Bengal crippled with broken backbone since English was scrapped from Class 1 in schools.

No IAS or IIT toppers from Bengal can be heard of now. I am from a generation who never saw anything but communist rule in West Bengal. And I feel bad to say that millions of educated Bengalis had to migrate to other states (like migrant Biharis) and abroad since the militant trade unions shut down industries like Dunlop, Metal Box etc. All major jute mills got locked up. IISCO, which once used to be a barometer in London Stock Exchange, got sick and nationalized.

Calcutta stock exchange, a forerunner of Bombay stock exchange almost lost trading in recent past. Corporate headquarters shifted to Bombay. Only ITC or Britannia stayed back. Bengal, once known for financial glory, became an industrial desert. Medical service and educational system got infiltrated with mediocre party affiliated cadres who made a whole system decadent with cobwebbed syllabus and incompetent training which earlier used to be a role model for a nation.

India’s first post graduate medical institute IPGMER happened in Calcutta superseding AIIMS. There was something called brand Bengal before these commies took hold. If you were a successful Indian you probably studied in Calcutta (Presidency/Xaviers/ Calcutta Medial College/Calcutta University/ Bengal Engineering College etc). Owning an Ambassador (made in Bengal) was the ultimate status symbol in India.

And you probably wore a Bata shoe that too was made in Bengal. Park Street had probably the best nightlife to enjoy and celebrate your success in anglicized atmosphere outside the east of Suez. With Jyoti Basu’s misrule whole of Bengal became a wasteland (remember T.S.Eliot?). Bengal lost its brand sheen. So why cry so much for a man who upheld a failed ideology (forgot the Soviets and East Europe?) which ruined a state?

In my opinion his successor Buddhadev Bhattacharyya did much for Bengal. He single-handedly spearheaded industrial revival (Sector V of Salt lake became IT hub where more than 50,000 software engineers work, Durgapur-Asansol belt turned around, Dunlop reopened, Kolkata now politically rechristened version of Calcutta got some malls and flyovers and got back some business which left with Jyoti babu’s time!).

Had it not been Mamata di’s intervention Buddha babu almost got the Tatas in Singur wherefrom the first Nano would have rolled out! Actually Jyoti babu belonged to Ballygunge group of communists- rich, elite and English-speaking Bourgeois. In Calcutta there goes a saying that there are two kinds of Communists- Ballygunge and Tollygunge types. Ballygunge type communists ( e.g., Jyoti Basu, Indrajit Gupta, Mohit Sen, Somenath Chatterjee etc) would discuss communism over scotch on the rocks , nostalgically think of their time spent in London and send their children and grandchildren to English medium schools like St.Xavier’s or Loreto.

And Tollygunge types (e.g. Pramode Dasgupta, Biman Bose, or Buddhadev Bhattacharyya) will discuss communism over ‘muri’ (puffed rice) and ‘telebhaja’ (fried potatoes or brinjal) in refugee colony, sing IPTA songs and plan their next remonstration/ upheaval against the industry owners or rich zamindars and try to make Bengali the only medium of instruction in schools or colleges since they themselves are uncomfortable with the language due to lack of good schooling or poor social background.

This group had nothing to lose but their shackles. But both types had a similarity. They wanted a change. And now you see what change we got in Calcutta! Except the change in name nothing is changed. And that also in a city which brought change two hundred years ago by a movement Indians acknowledge as Bengal Renaissance! A city once known as cultural capital is dwindling and suffering by self-inflicted stupor. Financial prosperity patronizes culture.

Once flight of capital happen culture follows suit too. And the late Jyoti Basu, whose only claim to fame can be that our state was at least free from communal hatred, was the main architect of doom. It is interesting to note that he died before he could witness the expected and forecasted total ouster of communists from the Bengal government by the Trinamool congress party in next 2011 Assembly elections.