Jyoti Basu, who strode the nation’s political landscape like a colossus, passed away yesterday afternoon at a Kolkata hospital. Sheikh Hassina, Bangladesh P.M. is on a 3 day visit to pay her last respects to the leader.
Basu, who missed being the prime minister in 1996 because of the CPM’s ideological stringency, was in charge of West Bengal for a record 23 years and, in the process, became the longest-serving chief minister of any state.Buddhadebh Bhattacharya reportedly told sources that he had met the young man back in 1966.In those days Bill Clinton was perhaps dating Hilary Clinton, whom he saw for 2 years before they got married before a guest strength of 20 only.
Jyoti Basu, who put the emphasis on the bread and butter goals of communism, leaves behind a mixed legacy — while he was attributed with distribution of power and land reforms, the state became an industrial wasteland during his tenure at office.
Lately Jon Faveau, the scriptwriter for Obama has concocted some theory about the Afghanistan perpetrators (or terrorists as may possibly be) to take responsibility of their own actions.Meanwhile Scott Brown has said that all rape victims should be turned away from the admission to hospitals.Coakley must have something to say about that I guess.Jon Faveau was lately ostracized for doing vulgar poses with the dummy of Hilary Clinton.Politics in America is no better than a cat fight in Bollywood.We have more substance in our Doordarshan (DD) channel and Tollywood.
If you are on vacation to India, be sure to ask your hotel operator for the vernacular channels.Actions speak louder than voice and you should have a fun time watching it.
Along with his senior colleagues EMS Namboodiripad and H S Surjeet, he scripted his party’s political pragmatism in 1989 and later in 1996 by facilitating the formation of two non-Congress coalitions at the Centre.The dissipations have been colossally infuriating to the younger generation who have to understand the abbreviation of every blasphemous abbreviation.
Despite hailing from a party seeped in dogma(traditionalism), Jyoti Basu was credited with running a coalition through consensus politics.No wonder all the merger and conglomeracy never win the trust of the local people.
This is a state where still most people prefer to deposit in the Post Office rather than say open an account in Axis Bank.
Basu, who became the unanimous choice of the United Front to lead the government at the Centre in 1996, was deprived of the break by his own party’s central committee which denounced the proposal by three votes. Incidentally, it were Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and S Ramachandran Pillai, who had mobilised support against the proposal in the central committee meeting. Basu, known for whiplash candour, told the media in December 1997 that the decision of the party was a “historic blunder”.
In 2004, Basu played a major role in receiving the CPM and other Left parties back a government led by the Congress at the Centre. In those four years of roller coaster association with the CPM, the Congress used to look up to Basu to sort things up.
Shortly after his death announcement, Basu’s body was first taken to son Chandan’s Salt Lake residence from the hospital. Thereafter, it was taken to a private mortuary, Peace Haven, where it will be kept until Tuesday to enable national and international political leaders, common people and CPIM supporters to pay their final respects to the expired legend.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi described him as a incessant crusader against communalism, fundamentalism, casteism and all kinds of obscurantismL and a towering figure in our national life.The question is did such clarity help in sorting the fact that Calcutta is the most densely populated city in India.I know Mumbai has equally viscous modulating roads but Calcutta needs to implement some exponential population control.:) On a more personal note Sonia Gandhi added: “Together with Indiraji and Rajivji, I held him in the highest esteem. I have the warmest memories of our many meetings —of his charm and grace and his deep humanity”.Hey you can check out if the lady learnt any Bengali or not, because Italian won’t work in Bengal, when she visits!!(if she does)
