Pragmatic patriarch

If its sensible to talk of the completeness of a political career,Jyoti Basu West Bengals chief minister for 23 years,and a veteran of nearly seven decades of politics had a complete political career. Nine years after he quit as chief minister,Basus demise at the age of 95 is the literal end of an era in Indian politics. Much of the post-Independence history of opposition to a paramount Congress would have differed in colour and character without this figure who was initiated into Marxism in London,built a constituency for himself among the railway trade unionists in the 40s,got elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946,helped organise the leftist mass movement gigantic rallies and fearsome strikes that became the hallmark of the Indian Lefts street-fighting decades.

When the Communist Party of India split in 1964,Basu left with the Marxists as a founding member of the CPM politburo. As chief minister,Basu consolidated on the initial successes of the CPM,such as Operation Barga Bengals phenomenal land reforms and local government. But its debatable if Basu,through the tumultuous 60s and 70s and even in his early years in power,wasnt more the public face of the party,while policy and politics would be determined by Pramod Dasgupta PDG till the latters death in 1982. And his party,in a historic blunder as late as 1996,declared that he couldnt lead a multi-party Union government that wouldnt implement a Marxist programme. That might yet mitigate historys verdict on Basu for the rut West Bengal was driven into during his long tenure the flight of capital,pervasive power outages,shuttered factories,flight of intellectual capital as the government decided English education or elite education was no longer necessary,are but the gentler aspects of Bengals steady ruination,which a burst of reformist zeal under a new chief minister could not stem. Basu,moreover,has departed at a time when West Bengals social indicators have slid vis-à-vis Bangladeshs and the Marxists are at their political weakest in three-plus decades.

But Basu will be remembered as the Lefts arch-pragmatist,who realised long ago the need to move beyond a politics of disruption and unquestioning opposition to the Centre to cooperation and alliance-building. Even the Lefts 2008 withdrawal of support to UPA-I a government he had helped form wasnt to his liking. In retrospect,theres an understandable nostalgia for the semblance of order of Basus tenure in an increasingly imploding Bengal. After demitting office,the Marxist veteran had become Bengals patriarch,who could question his successors government over another bloodshed and whom the states opposition too would approach. Its not just his party that will miss him.