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Journalism of Courage
Just spare a thought for Jyoti Basu. After weathering eighty and more autumns in his long, eventful and illustrious life, he is clearly desirous of procuring some precious time by himself, a chance to explore the quiet pleasures of retirement. You would think his comrades in the Communist Party of India Marxist would appreciate this intensely human urge. But no, bent upon extracting the last droplet of charisma and waning leadership skills from the man who would be prime minister, they refuse to ratify his abdication.
Small wonder then that Basu has had to resort to other means to win their agreement means considerably less dignified than merely requesting unlimited free time to potter about the library and gaze dreamily at the setting sun for hours at a time. Put simply, he has decided to be difficult by throwing an indiscreet tantrum here and advocating an irrational course of action there. It is a neat little trick, requiring guile and a brilliant sense of timing. Push the comrades into a corner, so that they will have no choice but to leave the veteran Communist to his whims.
Seriously, Basu8217;s latest tirade is more than a sad and depressing turn in his record innings as chief minister of West Bengal and his long years as the uncontested leader of the Communist movement in India. It is symptomatic of the crisis within the once formidable Left Front. That great coalition lost its economic raison d8217;etre long ago when its economic prescriptions were rendered altogether out of sync with the changing times; and its political confusion has become increasingly evident in the post-United Front years. And now the Left Front is struggling to prevent division in its ranks, with men-with-a-mass-base like Subhas Chakraborty threatening to walk off with a big chunk of the CPIM. Add to this perceptible signs of public dissatisfaction, the seemingly imminent split in the Congress, the challenge posed by Mamata Banerjee8217;s Mahajot8230; and the Left Front8217;s West Bengal bastion appears impregnable no longer.
