Jyoti Basu: Sid Harth
Sid Harth
Twenty Five Lacs of Adivasi People Belonging to Ghtawar Tribe Tribe in
JHARKHAND are DEPRIVED of RESERVATION! Twenty Million Partition Victim
Bengali Resettled Refugees also DEPRIVED and Persecuted!
Manu Rules Zionist Brahaminical India as Jyoti Basu Critical, on
Ventilator! by palashbiswas @ 2010-01-06 – 17:47:38
Manu Rules Zionist Brahaminical India as Jyoti Basu Critical, on
Ventilator!
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- Two Hundred Fifty SEVEN
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
Jyoti Basu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jyoti Basu (Bengali: জ্যোতি বসু) (July 8, 1914) is a politician
belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from West Bengal,
India. He served as the Chief Minister of Bengal from 1977 to 2000,
making him India's longest-serving Chief Minister as of 2009[update].
He was a member of the CPI(M) Politburo from the time of the party's
founding in 1964 until 2008.[1][2]
Background
Basu was born into an upper middle-class Bengali family in Calcutta.
He was initially named Jyotirindra Basu, but his name was shortened to
Jyoti when he joined school. His father, Nishikanta Basu, was a doctor
from the village of Barodi in Dhaka District, East Bengal (now in
Bangladesh).[3] He received his primary and secondary school education
at St. Xavier's Collegiate School. He graduated from Presidency
College with an honours degree from the Art Faculty in 1935, and
subsequently travelled to the United Kingdom to study law. He was
introduced to the Communist Party of Great Britain by Bhupesh Gupta.
Basu returned to India in 1940, after qualifying for the Bar, and
became a whole-timer of the Communist Party of India. In 1944 Basu
became involved in trade union activities when CPI delegated him to
work amongst the railway labourers. When B.N. Railway Workers Union
and B.D. Rail Road Workers Union merged, Basu became the general
secretary of the union.
Political career Basu was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly
in 1946, contesting the Railway constituency. When the Communist Party
of India split in 1964, Basu became one of the first nine members of
the Politburo of the newly-formed Communist Party of India (Marxist).
[2] In 1967 and 1969, Basu became Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal
in the United Front governments.
From June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000, Basu served as the Chief
Minister of West Bengal for the Left Front government. In 1996 Jyoti
Basu seemed all set to be the consensus leader of the United Front for
the post of Prime Minister of India. However, the CPI(M) Politburo
decided not to participate in the government, a decision that Jyoti
Basu later termed a historic blunder. H.D. Deve Gowda from the Janata
Dal instead became Prime Minister. Basu resigned from the Chief
Ministership of West Bengal in 2000 for health reasons, and was
succeeded by fellow CPI(M) politician Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. As of
2009[update], Basu holds the record for being the longest-serving
Chief Minister in Indian political history.
The 18th congress of CPI(M), held in Delhi in 2005, re-elected Basu to
its Politburo, although he had asked to be allowed to retire from it.
On September 13, 2006, Basu entreated the CPI(M) to allow his
retirement due to his age, but was turned down. General Secretary
Prakash Karat said that the party wanted Basu to continue until its
2008 congress, at which point it would reconsider.[4] At the 19th
congress in early April 2008, Basu was not included on the Politburo,
although he remained a member of the Central Committee and was
designated as Special Invitee to the Politburo.[1][2]
On January 1, 2010, Basu was admitted to a Calcutta hospital after
feeling unwell.[5][6] As of 6 January 2010 (2010 -01-06)[update], his
health condition is critical.[7][8]
Controversies
In January 2006 the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Basu and
others in connection with land allotments in Salt Lake.[9]
Manu Rules Zionist Brahaminical India as Jyoti Basu Critical, on
Ventilator!Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader
Jyoti Basu, hospitalised with a pneumonia attack, was in critical
condition Wednesday, a medical bulletin said.
Basu, 95, was hospitalised last week after a pneumonia attack and
admitted to the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit of the hospital in Salt
Lake, the Kolkata suburb where he lives.
Born in 1914 in Kolkata, Basu became chief minister in June 1977. He
stepped down voluntarily on health grounds in November 2000.
One of the founding fathers of the CPI-M, Basu almost became India's
prime minister in 1996, but the party vetoed the proposal.
This Sentence may hint you to understand the circumstances in Sensex
India 2010 onwards. Jyoti Basu may be Predestined for DEMISE as the
Marxists committed to Land reforms, Dictatorship of the Proletariat
and the Ultimate Classless, Exploitationlesss Society due to emerge in
REVOLUTION, have become the best Agency of Free Market Democracy as
well as Ruling Brahaminical Hegemony. Even the HARD CORE Maoists
compete with the UN, UNESCO, World bank, IMF, State Revenue and
Resource Fed NGOs. Opportunist Intelligentsia, Pet Toilet Media and
Civil Society led by BASTARDISED Politicians of all Colorful genres
and the rouged Staff of Parent less so Called Economists and Policy
Makers enrolled by MNCs and Corporates to STIMULATE Ethnic Cleansing
and Mass Destruction!
Those who were Pronouncing Death Sentence for me, might have thought
that I was so afraid that had no way but to seek Escape Route! Sorry
Friends , I am Back from RAJASTHAN! Where I spent almost a Fortnight
and attended and addressed 26th National Joint Convention of Backward
(SC, ST and Obc) and Minority Communities Employees Federation and
Mulnivasi Rashtriya Sangh attended by Seventy Thousand Delegates led
by all prominent SC, ST and OBC communities in North India for
instance JATS, MEENAs, BHEELS, Meghwals, Ravanas and so on. All the
Jat Chowdharies Joined us and we dare to seize New Delhi any time! We
may stall the NSE, BSE at any given time as we focus on Organised
sectors also.I personally addressed the delegates on 24th and 29 th
during the very Third and Last session. I dealt with the Mystery of
Unique Identity Number Economics and then explained the Maoists Ruling
Hegemony Corporate Political Military Equations.
Hence friends, it is not just writing on Net and Proving some Writing
Skills! We have officially declared Action since First January 1010
and you have to watch! national President Vaman Meshram and other
leaders have trained the CADRES how to mobilise Organised and Non
Organised Masses during all these Five Days. We have interacted person
to person, communities to communities everyday from the Morning till
late in the Night!
All MAULANAS, and leaders of Minorities including Pasminda Muslims,
Jamayet Ul Hind, all Tribal leaders joined us. Now we are United Rock
Solid!
During this CONFERENCE we were stunned to witness that the Statue of
Manu Maharaj who wrote Manusmriti stands just before the Rajasthan
High Court in the Premises exposing Naked the Political as well as
Judicial System Brahaminical. We have Maratha as well Jats with us.
But the OBC Communities, Forty Two Percent in Bengal stick with the
Eight Percent Brahamin Kayastha Baidya Ruling Hegemony for which
Bengal has no Break Through for any Change whatsoever!
Please see COMRADE Jyoti Basu from this place only. Seventeen People
DROWN in RUPNARAYA, Missing even after Three Days as almost all of
them Hindi Speaking labour Class people. You may NEVER trace them out.
Jyoti Basu is the Greatest Icon of Brahaminical Marxist Bengal, and
you may not understand Bengal today without knowing Jyoti Basu who
SLAUGHTERED Bengali Dalit Refugees whom he himself invited in
Marichjhanpi ejecting out form Refugee Camps and Colonies outside
Bengal to create Favourable Election Equation and succeeding to get
the key of Power became afraid of Dalit Muslim Equation once again
potential to dislodge the Brahamins once again, so BASU and Buddha
Liberated MARICHJHANPI back in 1979. This Genocide is the Mother of
all Genocides in BENGAL. But those Brahamins leading so many
INSURRECTIONS and Singing, Writing Revolt NEVER NEVER demanded Justice
for either the Partition Victims or the Victims in Marichjhanpi. They
not only Mutilated the History of Black Untouchable Negroid Bengal,
but MANIPULATED the history of Indian Holocaust targeting the SC, ST,
OBC and Minority Communities!
Veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti
Basu was put on ventilator this morning after his condition turned
serious. Superintendent of AMRI hospital in Salt Lake Debashish
Sharma, where Basu is admitted, said, "He has been put on ventilatory
support this morning and his condition has turned serious".
96-year-old Basu, who was admitted to the hospital on Friday last
following a "moderately severe" pneumonic infection, is under special
observation at the ICCU, Sharma said.
A special medical board has been constituted to review Basu's
condition. Dr A K Maity, Basu's personal physician and also a member
of the board, said his condition was "unstable".
"Basu is critical. He was put on ventilator support early (Wednesday)
morning as he was having respiratory problems," said the bulletin from
AMRI Hospital, where a six-member medical board is treating the ailing
leader.
"His condition is being monitored. All supporting medicines are being
provided," the bulletin added.
The private hospital's Medical Superintendent Debasish Sharma told
IANS: "His condition is serious."
...and I am Sid Harth
Sid Harth
Submitted by admin2 on Wed, 01/06/2010 - 22:37 in National
NetIndian News Network
New Delhi, January 6, 2010
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will fly to Kolkata tomorrow morning to
visit hospitalised former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, whose
condition remained critical though doctors said in the evening there
had been some "positive changes" during the day.
Earlier, in the morning, doctors had said that the condition of Mr
Basu, 95, who is suffering from pneumonia and has breathing problems,
had deteriorated and that he had been put on a ventilator.
"His present condition is still critical but he has shown some
positive changes," they said in the evening. A team of doctors at the
AMRI Hospital is continuously monitoring Mr Basu's condition.
Earlier, in the day, Dr Singh had called up West Bengal Chief Minister
Budhdhadeb Bhattacharya to enquire about Mr Basu's health.
Hundreds of people had gathered outside the hospital and there was a
steady stream of visitors to see Mr Basu, including Railways Minister
Mamata Banejee.
The West Bengal Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) secretariat
met during the day to review the health condition of Mr Basu at a
special meeting. The leaders urged people not to pay heed to rumours
about his condition.
Official sources told NetIndian that Dr Singh would leave for Kolkata
in the morning and return to the capital by the evening
http://netindian.in/news/2010/01/06/0004700/jyoti-basus-condition-remains-critical-pm-visit-tomorrow
....and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
A positive triumph
Interview with Jyoti Basu
P.V. SIVAKUMAR
Jyoti Basu, a 2004 photograph.
Seventy-six-year-old Jyoti Basu, veteran Communist Party of India
(Marxist) leader, began his fourth unbeaten innings as Chief Minister
on June 25, 1991 – setting something of a world record for a Communist
party-led government contesting elections in a pluralistic political
system. Within six months, he will be independent India’s longest-
serving (without a break) Chief Minister belonging to any party.
In any objective assessment, Jyoti Basu symbolises solid political and
ideological work over an extended period, fortitude and staying power
and also a sharp, contemporary focus on issues that matter. He is
clearly a unique kind of leader who commands enormous mass appeal and
wide-ranging respect among politicians; he is equally clearly a
product of his movement.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, who met the Frontline team – the two
economists, Dr. K. Nagaraj and Dr. Venkatesh Athreya, N. Ram and
photographer K. Gajendran – in his Writers’ Building office on June
26, was an agile politician, who anticipated several of the questions.
He was frank and forthright: frank in his assessment of his political
opponents and forthright about the issues which matter. While
referring to the Left Front’s solid accomplishments, he made it a
point to speak about its shortcomings. Jyoti Basu is a man with a
sense of accomplishment about him – and a man who has his future tasks
clearly visualised and spelt out. Further, the Jyoti Basu we met was a
relaxed, friendly, accessible Chief Minister with a sense of humour
and a ready chuckle (who has read virtually every one of the published
novels of P.G. Wodehouse, for example). “Photo sessions are for film
stars, not for politicians,” he joked while consenting to be
photographed from various angles for Frontline.
Excerpts from the interview.
The outcome of the tenth general election fought on issues of
secularism, stability and just change has been somewhat mixed.
However, here in West Bengal, there has been an unambiguous and
resounding verdict in favour of the Left Front which has, in the
process, made history by winning a fourth consecutive term. How has
this come about?
This question is being asked for quite some time. My view is we have
been getting in all these elections positive votes. It is not just
negative; we have been getting positive votes. That is because people
have understood from their experience that we are implementing
seriously the programme we set out before them in our election
manifesto; and that with the limited powers we have – of which also we
make them conscious – we have been able to advance in a significant
manner.
People compare our rule with the Congress rule which was there for 28
years in West Bengal and where they had also the Central Government
with them. People also compare this period in which we are in the
government to Congress governments which exist elsewhere in India –
where riots take place, where there is communal disharmony, where in
the economic, social and political fields, there is instability, and
here there has been stability. So all that, they see.
As for the negative features – our disabilities are there and we are
unable to implement some of the programmes – they know it is not
because of us, or the efforts which we have been making. It is because
of the Central government’s wrong policies towards the Left Front
government here – they know that. For instance, in the field of
industries. It all depends on the Central government. Small-scale
industries, cottage industries, we have the largest number (of these)
in India. But the middle kind of industries and bigger industries,
modern industries which need licences from Delhi, there we have not
been able to advance very much – except during the last one-and-a-half
years, after this petrochemical complex, the permission for which we
received from the Central government. Now things have opened up as far
as the industrial field is concerned.
The Left Front seems to have entrenched itself exceedingly well in the
rural areas of West Bengal. Could you elaborate on how this has been
possible and what are the policies which have made it possible?
That is exactly what I am saying. When we talk about the ‘limited
powers’... you see, under the Constitution, we have more powers in the
field of agriculture and that we have utilised fully. Land reform, the
kind of land reforms we have had here, was never there in West Bengal
before; it was there nowhere else in India.
Similarly, the panchayat system, Panchayati Raj (as it is being
called), which has decentralised powers in this period – it is seen
nowhere else in India. We have elections for local government in the
same way as we have for the Assembly and the Lok Sabha. We have a law
under which we have to have elections at particular periods. There is
no such law anywhere else in India. So this democracy, this aspect of
democracy, also people have understood.
And people means not only the people in the villages; in the towns
too, they have understood it. They see we have municipal elections.
Whether we lose or win – we have been winning most of the seats, most
of the municipalities – we don’t bother about that; we have to have
elections. This is a very big thing which you don’t see anywhere else
in India. They go on postponing these elections! And by getting the
people’s support... you see, what we say is that we don’t rule just
from here, from Writer’s Building, our headquarters, but we take the
support of the people, through their mass organisations, of the
workers, peasants, the middle classes, the students, the youth, women
and so on.... then chambers of commerce which are there, we also talk
to them. We are in contact with them. This is the way.
There is a feeling here... some people, the bigger industrialists and
some others were a little suspicious of us, naturally (laughs). But
now, they have seen through their experience that – of course, we are
with the workers; of course, we believe in class struggle; we believe
that workers, if they have no alternative, they have to go on strike.
That is quite legal and under the Constitution.
But they also know that we are for the advance of our economy; and in
that we recognise that the private sector has a big role to play, a
significant role to play; and they have seen through their experience
that nowhere else does such peace exist in India as here in West
Bengal. So now they are somewhat reconciled to the fact that they can
carry on their operations here, together with us. We have the joint
sector – even with the largest companies. That they have seen.
The panchayat system, its impact on both the formulation and
implementation of poverty alleviation programmes in rural areas, like
the Food for Work Programme and the IRDP. What has been the experience
of the Left Front government with regard to this?
Our experience, I can tell you, has been very good. Because poverty
alleviation programmes are there; the Central government has some
programmes... and we implement some of them. But actually in the
field, we have been able to do something. That anybody who goes to the
countryside will see... that we have distributed land, we have given
them quality seeds, we have linked them up with the banks. Then, in
the formulation of our Plan, we go right down, you see.
In the districts also we tell them, “You go right down and get the
people’s opinion as to what exactly has to be done in various fields,
various sectors, our departments and so on.” All these together then
come to us. We place it before the Planning Board and it goes through
that. So in the formulation of the Plan, it is there; and in
implementation, 50 per cent of the budget of the government is spent
through the panchayats and the other local bodies, the municipalities.
This has never been there before.
And in our legislation, we say – I don’t say it is being done in that
way 100 per cent – but the legislation is that whatever you do in the
panchayats, you must put up in the office – you see, outside – for
people to come and see. You see if they have any complaints to make;
where there has been discrimination and things like that. They may
have some complaint. So we should listen to them and every month have
a meeting with the people of the village, and so on.
Would it be correct to say that the employment situation for the rural
poor, through land reforms and panchayats, has improved considerably
during Left Front rule?
You are right. In the panchayats, this has happened. We have created
mandays, millions of mandays through this. Outside the agricultural
operations, throughout the year almost, they get some work or other –
that we have been able to do. But that, unfortunately, we have not
been able to do in the towns and the cities. Only a year-and-a-half
back, we took a decision: we pay some unemployment assistance – that
is nothing, only Rs.50 a month – to those whose names are in the
employment register. But that doesn’t really solve the problem. So to
alleviate the sufferings of these people – the unemployed boys and
girls – the self-employment scheme was evolved. There we have an
agreement with the banks where they give loans to the extent of 75 per
cent; and we make up the 25 per cent. Ours is not a loan, but a
subsidy.
This has worked very well. I wish we had taken this up earlier;
because only last year, the year we started this, we gave jobs to
about half a million boys and girls; and now our target is to give
about 8 lakh jobs every year in the self-employment schemes. This is
for alleviating the unemployment problem; it is a major step we have
taken. But through our experience, this has to be extended.
You made the point that industrialists who were initially suspicious
realised that even as you are for workers’ rights and the class
struggle, you are also for the advance of the economy. Now, in that
context, how do you see the role of the organised working class
movement in a State like West Bengal where the Left Front government
is in office?
Well, the working class is divided, but the vast majority supports us.
The CITU is the organisation of the working class which supports us.
But we make it a point – when there are disputes with the management
and so on – to call everybody, whether recognised or not recognised.
If they can’t settle among themselves – that is, the workers and the
management – then they come to the Labour Department. There is a lot
of work to do in that respect; and they have done it quite
successfully. Without strikes, we have had very good agreements with
various industries – like tea, like engineering and so on. This has
happened. But, of course, it doesn’t mean that strikes have stopped.
In individual cases, strikes are there. And we have told the
managements and the owners that if no settlement is arrived at and we
think that the workers’ cause is just, and they go on strike, we
support them. Very clearly, we tell them!
In fact, you have earlier referred to the attitude of industrialists
which is now changing, and you see an opening up in the last year-and-
a-half or so. How do you see the industrial situation now? And where
do you go from here?
I think that has opened up. You see, last year… I told you (in an
earlier interview) how we got this sanction – for which I had been
waiting 12 years – on this petrochemical complex in Haldia; that has
now come. We are tying up the finances and so on; a little bit is left
over, that we’ll do just now. And then this polyester fibre plant,
another Rs.500 crore project. These are big projects with big
companies – one is with the Tatas; the other is with the Ambani group.
So like that, some others from outside West Bengal are also coming.
Food processing is a new thing that is happening in West Bengal; and
we have got some people from outside who are taking an interest in
this. The Tatas are also interested in agro-industries and things like
that, which they will take up (they said) after this election was
over. Just before the election we had a discussion like that. That
will open up huge possibilities in West Bengal in agriculture, in
biotechnology and all that in which they have an interest.
The Salt Lake Electronic complex. . .
That is electronics; we have done it ourselves. The Central government
has not helped us a bit. Big companies are there – like Philips – and
other smaller companies are there; one or two small Japanese companies
are there; we have also done it ourselves a bit. But even now, we want
investment by the Central government in one sector or other of the
electronics industry. So there we have joint sector; also the private
sector; and our own.
The thing that has not come out very much, but stands out from what we
have learnt in the last couple of days, is the achievement of West
Bengal in small industries. You referred to the fact that in cottage
and small industries, West Bengal is No. 1 in the country. What has
been the specific policy on this?
Yes, we have the largest number in the country. Because for that, we
don’t need licences from the Centre and things like that! Of course,
for raw materials, bank assistance and all that, we need that help;
but anyway, we are carrying on. And that is labour-oriented, so it is
very useful to us. Particularly our cottage industry, that was
absolutely down and out. You know, Tamil Nadu had done very well in
cottage industry earlier – I don’t know what is happening there now –
it had done very well. We were nowhere near that, you see. But now for
the last few years, there has been tremendous advance in this area in
West Bengal. Now we have got shops in various States of India, where
we sell these things which are produced by our people in the cottage
industry.
So both rural and urban small industry has developed quite a bit…
Urban also… I was talking about cottage industries in the villages…
and in urban areas also it is there. But they need a little
modernisation: that we have to do this time. And we need to link up
these small-scale industries with the modernisation programme of the
government of India, for instance in steel – they are going to spend
ultimately about Rs.5,000 crore to Rs.6,000 crore. This is a big
opportunity for small-scale industries to be established in those
areas where this is being done.
Rajiv Gandhi earlier talked about Rs.1,001 crore for West Bengal –
after a detailed discussion in Calcutta. You told us about it in an
earlier interview.
That is an old thing, you see... we didn’t get more than Rs.200
crore!
Will you be talking to the new Congress(I) minority government about
it?
Those things, you see, they were so vague (laughs), many of them
didn’t mean anything anyway! Now we have to take up anew our economic
programme... Today Pranab Mukherjee rang me up; he is now in the
Planning Commission, he has taken over. So he is coming here to meet
me. Already, I had met the Prime Minister. I had told him: “Please
don’t take us for granted. You are a minority government, but we just
don’t want to take advantage of that. It all depends on you. Now, what
is the policy you are going to pursue? For that, discussions are
necessary.”
Of course, he agreed; but I don’t see that anything has happened yet.
Except that Pranab rang me up today... and I said, “You come, come
along... we have our ideas, we will discuss...” So this is necessary –
and particularly, proper Centre-State relations. This has been very,
very bad: it is all centralisation, we have no decentralisation. The
Sarkaria Commission Report has not been given effect to. Even about
the little things in the financial field which should have been given
effect to, nothing done!
Could you give us an idea of your philosophy of, your outlook on,
Centre-State relations? We know you have spoken about this subject in
Madras and elsewhere, but could you sum it up for us?
I have said already that in a vast country like India, this won’t do.
We put out a paper in 1978 – we came into the government in 1977, and
in 1978 we prepared a paper. It was discussed all over India. Indira
Gandhi was alive then. After the 1980 election which returned her to
power, she set up this Sarkaria Commission. That was a good thing. It
took a long time, because the Congress was not interested! They didn’t
give any memorandum on anything. All States, I think, gave some
memorandum or other. And I think everybody was agreed that such
centralisation cannot unite India. Their idea is exactly the opposite:
they think by police powers, by all kinds of black laws and all that
and centralisation of powers, they can keep India strong and united!
And that you will get a strong Central government! We think, on the
contrary, that it will be a weak government.Because you need the
cooperation of the people and that you can get by placing your trust
in the people – not by insulting the people and creating all kinds of
confusion among them in regard to the Centre. This has been our idea.
So you need strong States in order to have a strong Centre. That is
our view.
By our count, the Centre has used this knife of President’s rule –
Article 356, or its counterpart for Union Territories – 96 times to
date.
In the Madras seminar (on Democracy, Federalism and Article 356, held
on March 31, 1991), we heard that it was over 90 times from (S.)
Guhan, who produced that very good paper. And we were the first
victims – that is, Kerala, our Communist government there.
What is the agenda of the Left Front government now? You have
indicated already some directions with respect to industry... where do
you go further in the rural areas, for example, now?
In rural areas, we still have to complete that process. We have about
1.5 lakh acres of land, you see, which we have not been able to
distribute – because the court cases are there. Now we have to pay
some attention to that; get them released from court. With us also, we
have got about 70,000 acres still left. That is not very good land, we
are told. So we have to see what exactly is to be done there with that
land: give it to the panchayats, or have cooperatives, or what? That
we have to see. Or have them for fodder production... or raw materials
for paper mills and so on. People are approaching us, you see... and
that can be done. We are still to do that, but we have to continue the
work there – what we have been doing in regard to the panchayats.
I told you about the planning and the expenditure: how we do it
through the panchayats. Some weaknesses are still there, which one has
to get rid of; this is what we have learnt. That work remains to be
done in rural development. New cropping patterns and all that, we have
to discuss; we’ll do it. These are just examples I am giving you...
about what remains to be done.
In health and education... you have taken up literacy in a big way
now.
Yes, literacy in a big way. After we came in, after five or six years,
we made education free up to Class 12, that is, up to the higher
secondary stage... and then, we are giving books free up to Class 5.
All those things have been there. But in the meanwhile we fell back a
bit on that literacy campaign. Now for the last one year we have taken
it up in right earnest – through the various districts. And they are
coming up very well. We have never had any such thing anywhere else in
India. In Kerala, it is different. Kerala already was quite high as
far as literacy was concerned...
And there is the advantage there of a single language...
But here, for instance in one district, Midnapore – which is our
biggest district – they found out about a year back that...
Asim Dasgupta: ... 19 lakhs were illiterate.
Jyoti Basu: So they had a timetable: that within that period, they
must complete the process of educating them, making them literate. I
believe they have not reached the target: but at least 80 per cent of
the target they have reached. Similarly, just now I find a
representative of the Government of India came to Burdwan – another
big district of West Bengal – and said, Burdwan has done quite well;
it is comparable...
Asim Dasgupta: It is fully literate now.
Jyoti Basu: So, like that we are trying... Other districts also have
taken up this programme. This will be one of our big priorities –
particularly because we started rather late, and we don’t want to lose
more time.
How about compulsory primary education? Up to Class 5? We have spoken
about this to you earlier, Mr Chief Minister...
That is there; that has been our idea since Independence. But to make
it compulsory is very, very difficult in the economic situation which
we are facing – in the economic and social situation we are facing.
But I think we have to discuss it. Because we have set up a commission
now – with our former Finance Minister, Dr Ashok Mitra, and others –
to go into this question of education, the quality of education, and
what exactly must be done to improve the situation there.
And work out the financial implications?
No, no. The quality of education means: Are the teachers really
teaching in the proper way? On the question of the syllabus, do we
need any change? Some people are saying there is too much load on the
children and that kind of thing. So the terms of reference are
there... they will go into that kind of problem. The Commission has
been set up; it will start its work. Similarly, for university
education and all that, this quality is very important. We have to
look into it.
In the context of the outstanding performance of the Left Front, we
also have this question of what has been the role of the Congress and
the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] in West Bengal? Could we have your
assessment of how they have fared this time and also of the
process...
The BJP was practically not there in West Bengal so much. Earlier,
they did not put up very many candidates... they have no
representation. They have a representation of two out of 140 in the
Calcutta Corporation; twice there were elections – they retained those
two seats. But in most of the municipalities, they have not had any
representation earlier. But in these Lok Sabha and Assembly elections,
they made a tremendous effort. And I think they have got, as far as I
know, from the figures I have got up to now, about 11 per cent – just
over 11 per cent – of the votes (in the Lok Sabha contest). They put
up candidates almost everywhere. And huge amounts they spent. This is
rather dangerous for us; so we have to analyse all this. We are
reviewing the entire situation.
Our calculations are, up to now, that they have cut into both the
Congress votes and the Left Front votes. We are studying this in
detail in the districts. From some of the booths for which we have got
figures, we see how this has happened: maybe last time they got one
vote; this time they have got 130 votes; we may have got 800 votes,
that is a different matter, but they got 130 votes. Yesterday,
somebody was telling me this. We are trying, as soon as possible, to
review all this. We have told our district committees (of the CPI-M)
to send us their reports, their evaluations. Then centrally, we shall
see what exactly has to be done. Many people have been misled... and
some communal feeling is always there. They have spread communal
poison, a great deal of it.
The Congress, unfortunately, never talks against the BJP – never! You
see, during the whole of this election, they cannot show that even one
leader ever talked against the BJP! Except when Rajiv came here, he
spoke one or two lines against the BJP. But these Congress leaders
here in West Bengal, they never did. This is the big danger. Because
to stop communalism and this kind of division in the country on the
basis of religion, according to our view, all should unite, whoever is
in the government or not in the government; the Opposition also you
have to take into confidence...
All secular forces have to unite...
But this is a danger here... because I don’t see these Congressmen
really conscious of all this!
Siddhartha Shankar Ray, who had a rather notorious role in the early
1970s – it was widely written upon in the press – then during the
Emergency, and subsequently as Governor in Punjab, was brought in with
the specific assignment of making the Congress(I) do very well. What
happened?
To unite the party and to repeat what they did in 1972 (the rigging of
the State Assembly elections)? But in 1972, they were in the
government! Now we are in the government. And elections… they have
always been free and fair in West Bengal, since 1977. You see, there
have been no complaints. In fact, we got a certificate from the
previous Chief Election Commissioner (Peri Sastry)… not from this
Commissioner (T.N. Seshan). But this Chief Election Commissioner has
also said… he has done very wrong things… but he has also said that
here peaceful elections were held.
And Siddhartha Ray, right from the time he came here – he was sent
from Delhi after 14 years’ absence – started saying that there would
be violence and all kinds of things… the rigging of elections, that
kind of thing, he went on saying. And he was helped also,
unfortunately, by the Chief Election Commissioner! But nothing of the
kind happened here.
As for his party… of course that formal unity was there. That has
always been there; even without him it was there. But I don’t think
that all of them were that happy that he came… you see, after so many
years. His role has never been good, you see… and we are a little
apprehensive of what it is going to be now. Yesterday, they began by
boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of the Ministers.
Judging by the events of the last few days, it seems that the
Opposition in this State has not changed its attitude to the Left
Front government at all. Even today we saw in the press its statements
alleging that the CPI(M) has…
Such statements go on… there has been some violence from our side
also, but they have done the most violence – that is irrefutable. I
said this in the public meeting yesterday. We can give figures on how
many of our people have been killed.
From there standpoint, you would appear unsinkable… your Left Front
government.
They are trying to do something about it but nothing has happened. But
this time, of course, they said – publicly they said they would get a
majority and form a government – but in the discussion among
themselves they said, it seems, they would get about 111 seats or
something – I don’t know how! But anyhow… we thought that they would
get about the same number they got last time, but they got three more
(in the Assembly).
Could we ask you some questions on the national scene? The Prime
Minister has stated, in cricketing parlance, that the Congress(I) is
like a famous batsman who fell just one short of a century but that
didn’t mean that he did not score well. How do you view the
performance of the Congress(I) in the tenth general election?
The Congress(I) ultimately did a little better than at least some of
us thought. But that is because it is very clear that Rajiv’s
assassination helped the party in the second stage… wherever elections
were being held. Except in U.P. and Bihar, I think they were helped.
The figures are clear… In Andhra Pradesh and in some other places. But
here, fortunately, our election was over by then. So that helped them.
Otherwise, I don’t they would have got these figures which are there
with them now.
They have 223 and with allies they are some 15 short of a majority in
the Lok Sabha.
I don’t think they would have come up so much.
One estimate is that they might have got 50 to 55 seats less than what
they actually got if Rajiv Gandhi had not been assassinated and there
had been no sympathy effect.
So this is the position. As far as we are concerned, we have made our
position clear. We are in the Opposition. A minority party can form a
government, but they have to take the Opposition into confidence, and
listen to us, talk to us. They cannot take us for granted…
This is the attitude of the CPI(M) to the new government in New
Delhi…
We said that if a confidence vote comes, we won’t vote for them, but
we may abstain. But also, we cannot abstain all the time! If, for
instance… the Budget session is there; on economic policy, so on and
so forth; on other policies… if they behave in the same way, then they
will not be in a position to carry on for five years – we are very
sure!
We were going to ask you this question: how long would you give the
Congress(I) government? Any decent length of time?
It all depends on them.
What do you see as the agenda before the nation now? In terms of the
polity and also the economy?
The agenda, you see… people have been talking about stability. Where
is the stability? Stability – even now it is not there. Then the
agenda is – we are a bankrupt nation; there are these economic
policies…. Now they have promised so many things… one crore jobs a
year.... Then in 100 days they would bring down the prices (of
essential commodities)! It is all absurd; you see they knew they were
absurd. This is the trouble with the Congress. They try to mislead the
people – by saying things which they can never do. We never do that.
What we can do, we tell the people we shall do. But they you see… this
has been going on for 40 years!
The new Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is quoted in the press as
saying that those who wrote the manifestos were not aware of the
Finance Minister’s situation.
They were very much aware! Their culture is to mislead the people.
They are not serious at all about the people.
The Union Finance Minister has also said that we have no alternative
but to go for the IMF loan… and he has said why should economists
scare people about the multinationals… they give us technology, they
are good and so on.
That we do not know… we have some other views. But as far as this
(IMF) loan is concerned, I have said already when I was in Delhi –
television was asking me for my view – I said, “My view is that we
have been opposing these conditionalities of the loan.” But now they
should tell us – for this last thing which we want from the IMF – what
are the conditionalities? How will it affect the Indian people? In
which sectors do they want us to do what? It is not only a question of
subsidy…. Today I find somebody has said, “They may ask you to cut
down military expenditure”… some other way, I don’t know. But if the
entire burden falls on the people, how can we accept this? So let
there be a debate. Let them tell us what exactly are the
conditionalities.
On the question of communalism, which is a grave danger, what should
be the priority of the Central government? What would you expect it to
do?
Well, for that we are waiting…
In U.P., the BJP has formed the government…
The BJP has captured U.P. – a very, very dangerous situation. And on
that slogan they have captured power there. Now they say they are
going to build the temple. So the Government of India has role to play
there.
There has been a democratic demand that there must be a law freezing
the status quo, as of August 15, 1947, for all religious monuments and
places of worship. This is in the party manifestos excepting for the
BJP.
I think we are agreeable to this except this…. As far as this Ayodhya
thing is concerned, we say – either you settle it amongst yourselves,
or leave it to the court.
Volume 27 - Issue 01 :: Jan. 02-15, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://frontlineonnet.com/stories/19910719012.htm
chhotemianinshallah
The Jyoti Basu difference and legacy
IT is no surprise that a major section of the Indian press and media
has treated the self-determined retirement from office of one of the
most illustrious political leaders and statesmen India has produced in
the past century with ill-concealed bad grace and dismissivism ("a
long innings with quite a low score," and so on), if not hostility.
This attitude is an expression of the widespread ideological tendency
of anti-Communism and anti-progressivism rather than a reflection of
anything Jyoti Basu might have done or failed to do as the longest-
serving Chief Minister of independent India and as a major national
political figure. Put bluntly, the negative attitude of much of the
media has reflected a crude prejudice against the ideology, politics
and mov ement of the Left of which Basu has been, for decades, the
best-known national symbol, administrator, and popular leader. Even
the high-minded act of bowing out on account of age and in the face of
intense pressure to carry on as Chief Minister for at le ast a while
longer - a rare moral example of self-abnegation in mainstream Indian
politics - has not been given its due in the media or, for that
matter, in the public space.
A byword for intellectual, political and personal integrity and for a
straightforward but cool and imperturbable style in politics, Basu
made a profound, long-term difference to the large, populous and
strategically important State that has always been h is first priority
and commanded his best effort. However, those who remember him mainly
as Chief Minister of West Bengal between 1977 and 2000 are likely to
underestimate his long experience in the crucible of struggle: as a
trade union organiser, as a p opular agitator, and as a revolutionary
fighter - starting, as was typical for his generation, as a freedom
fighter and courageously facing and overcoming state-sponsored
repression and intolerance in independent India as well. They are
likely also to un derestimate the inner resources of one of the most
attractive and gifted Opposition political figures India, or indeed
any country, has seen over the past half century.
Some others in the Communist party and movement - most importantly, an
E.M.S. Namboodiripad, a B.T. Ranadive, an M. Basavapunniah - have
distinguished themselves as exponents and developers of Marxist
theory. Some others - most importantly, a P. Sundaray ya, a Promode
Dasgupta, a Harkishan Singh Surjeet - have contributed specially to
party-building and organisational affairs. Basu's metier lay in
another domain - where theory, vision, polemic, and the ideological
characteristics and organisationa l resources of a revolutionary
movement encounter the challenge of working with the masses and
winning them over. Basu's genius lay in this interesting and quite
difficult interface where many an ideal, many a leader, and many a
political ambition has fa iled to achieve notable success.
It will take some time for his unprecedented long innings as Chief
Minister of West Bengal to be evaluated objectively and in its various
facets, and to be understood for the quantitative and qualitative
difference it has been able to make. Suffice it to mention some of the
major achievements.
In the first place, Left Front rule has been responsible for momentous
changes in the West Bengal countryside. Over the 23 years of Basu's
helmsmanship, it implemented a basic land reform, established India's
first comprehensive system of democratic dece ntralisation, and
extended rural electrification and irrigation. Agricultural production
came out of the impasse in which it had been trapped for decades
before Left rule, and in the 1980s and 1990s West Bengal showed the
highest rates of agricultural gr owth among the 17 most populous
States of the country. As a consequence of the new institutional
changes and agricultural growth, nutrition levels improved and rural
poverty declined in the State. In fact, West Bengal, followed by
Kerala, has the best re cord among all Indian States with respect to
rural poverty reduction over the past two decades.
Secondly, despite the concerted propaganda efforts in the media to
give the Basu government a bad name, West Bengal is a living example
of democracy at the grassroots. There have been elections to panchayat
institutions every five years since 1978, panch ayats have taken on
responsibilities that were earlier vested with the district-level
bureaucracy, and the divisible outlay for the districts tends to be
close to 50 per cent of State Plan outlays. Elected members of
panchayats are overwhelmingly from la nd-poor and landless households.
The West Bengal experience with local government was the primary
impetus for the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution,
which made regular elections to local bodies, rural and urban,
mandatory in all States.
Thirdly, West Bengal's industrial experience under Left Front rule has
been far from the 'wasteland' alleged in supercilious, sneering and
motivated media assessments. The industrial picture in the State has
been a complicated and mixed one over the last forty years, with signs
of decline and stagnation of traditional industry and problems created
for industrial and finance capital by an exceedingly strong trade
union movement and working class struggles. The theme of 'flight of
capital' has been talked about, but it has been very hard to
substantiate, document and study objectively. Since the adoption of a
new industrial policy since 1994, the State government has worked hard
to attract investors. Some successes have been scored, there have been
disap pointments (as with the joint sector giant Haldia petrochemical
project), and a complex industrial scenario with bright spots as well
as chronic problem areas is unfolding, as is happening in several
other States.
But the difference Jyoti Basu has made to politics and society must
not be assessed merely, or even mainly, with respect to West Bengal.
The limitations of the Left at the national level, especially in Hindi-
speaking India, stand out but West Bengal's Le ft Front has been a
bulwark of the struggle against Hindutva in Indian politics. The 30-
plus MPs from West Bengal have formed the foundation of a coherent and
influential Left presence in Parliament. The Left in Parliament has
been able to contribute the most consistent defence of secularism,
democracy, federalism and national unity, and the most outspoken and
radical critique of the policies of stabilisation and structural
adjustment. Take away the Left and saffron would have a much stronger
role in na tional politics than it does today, with its mixed bag of
opportunist allies. The anti-democratic and disintegrative
consequences of such - unmitigated and unmediated - ascendancy of the
Hindu Right would be too disturbing and tragic to contemplate.
Volume 17 - Issue 23, Nov. 11 - 24, 2000
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1723/17230210.htm
chhotemianinshallah
Vinay Kumar
“Confused, contradictory reporting in the media”
‘We need to undertake some alternative policies within the capitalist
system’
Highlights four points of programme of the party
NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday defended
the party’s veteran leader and the former West Bengal Chief Minister,
Jyoti Basu’s recent comments on the issue of capitalism. The remarks
on the role of the Left Front government had been “reported in a
confused and contradictory manner in the media,” it said.
Asserting that Mr. Basu’s remarks were on the nature of capitalist
development in the State and the role of the Left Front government, CPI
(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said that on the basis of “these
reports, some political leaders have also come out with equally
confused and misplaced reactions.”
Flays BJP, Congress
Mr. Karat said it was amusing to see some leaders of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress portray the approach of the CPI(M)
in simplistic terms of socialism versus capitalism.
“For them socialism only denotes a slogan to be used as a smokescreen
for promoting the interests of big capitalists and foreign capital,”
he said.
Mr. Karat said only those who were ignorant of the programme of the CPI
(M) could talk of the party saying “goodbye to socialism and welcome
to capitalism.”
Reacting to criticism by political parties as well as the CPI(M) ally,
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Mr. Karat said the RSP, unlike
the CPI(M), had declared socialism as its immediate goal. He said the
RSP could be asked why it had been working over all these years as
part of Left-led governments to implement reforms and welfare measures
“within the capitalist system.”
The CPI(M) general secretary highlighted four points of the programme
of the party: pursuing alternative policies within the capitalist
system, strengthening the struggle for alternative policies advocated
by the Left and democratic platform at the all-India level; realising
that the advance to socialism will be realisable only after the Left
and democratic forces were strong enough to build an alternative at
the national level; and undertaking industrialisation and economic
development in a manner where the interests of the workers and the
poorer sections were protected.
The CPI(M) leader said his party “knows fully well that in States
where the Left is in government, they cannot build socialism but
undertake some alternative policies within the capitalist system.”
Land reforms
Land reforms within the constitutional limits was one such step taken
by the party-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. It
was on the basis of this programmatic direction that it joined the
State governments “knowing fully well that it has limited powers
within the Constitution.”
Elaborating, Mr. Karat said that while working within the capitalist
system in a situation where the Centre imposes “neo-liberal policies,”
the Left-led governments had to undertake industrialisation and
economic development while protecting the interests of workers and the
poor.
Though the Left had been in office in West Bengal for 30 years,
capitalist development had been taking place there as in the rest of
India. These State governments were helping to strengthen the struggle
for alternative policies advocated by the Left and democratic forces
at the national level.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 08, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/01/08/stories/2008010860791200.htm
chhotemianinshallah
JYOTI BASU, India's longest-serving Chief Minister, has decided to
continue in office for some more time, reversing his earlier decision
to retire on September 15. The veteran Communist Party of India
(Marxist) leader changed his mind following discussio ns with party
general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit in Calcutta in the second
week of September. Speaking to Frontline, Surjit said that Jyoti Basu
had wanted to retire basically because of health problems but he had
been persuaded to continue in offi ce for some more time in order to
complete some unfinished tasks of the party and Left Front government
of West Bengal. "We appreciate his difficulties completely. But there
are some developmental and other projects that require his
supervision," Surjit said.
SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH
Anil Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal State Committee of the CPI
(M), announced on September 2 that Jyoti Basu, who had served as Chief
Minister for 23 years, would retire and that Deputy Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya would be his successor.
Jyoti Basu's latest decision has evoked critical comments from the
Opposition parties in West Bengal. The Trinamul Congress, the
Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress(I) have said that it had
exposed the limitations and desperation of the CPI(M). "It h as
revealed the extent of leadership vacuum in the CPI(M) and also how
much the party is dependent on a single leader," said Congress(I)
leader Pranab Kumar Mukherjee.
The Trinamul Congress, the principal Opposition, which has been waging
a sustained campaign against the "atrocities of the CPI(M) and its
government", described it as "an exercise in cowardice and the last-
ditch attempt by the CPI(M) leadership to perpet uate an anti-people
government, which is on its last legs".
Political observers correlate the postponement of Basu's retirement
with the political situation prevailing in West Bengal in the wake of
the aggressive anti-government campaign being carried out by the
Trinamul Congress. Defence Minister George Fernande s, who toured some
parts of West Bengal in the company of Trinamul Congress leader Mamata
Banerjee, made statements critical of the law and order situation in
the State. He has also submitted a report to the Centre. The Trinamul
Congress, a constituent o f the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance
at the Centre, has for long been demanding the dismissal of the West
Bengal government on law and order grounds. Although the Centre has
not acceded to the request formally, there is a perception within the
Left Front that the BJP and its associates would launch an operation
similar to the one that was unleashed in Tripura in the early 1990s
with a view to throwing out the Left Front government led by Nripen
Chakraborty.
The Tripura strategy, points out a Left Front leader, was simple:
unleash violence with the help of extremists and lumpen elements,
create law and order problems, dismiss the State government after
blaming it for the disturbances, instal a new administra tive
machinery controlled by Delhi and then use it to influence the
elections.
Observers are of the view that the CPI(M) would have preferred a
leader of Basu's experience and stature at the helm to face any such
eventuality.
Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Volume 17 - Issue 19, Sep. 16 - 29, 2000
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1719/17191330.htm
chhotemianinshallah
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in New Delhi
SPEAKING to mediapersons a few days before his retirement, Chief
Minister Jyoti Basu pointed out that Communists did not retire. They
retained their political conviction throughout their lives, he said.
He added that this was true in his case too and tha t he would
continue to help his party in a manner his health permitted.
Basu, who served as Chief Minister for the longest term in India's
democratic history, made it clear that the sole reason for his
decision to retire was indifferent health and that he would continue
political activity as a Polit Bureau member of the Comm unist Party of
India (Marxist) in whatever way possible.
Jyoti Basu's retirement evoked a variety of responses from political
circles in New Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners such as the Trinamul Congress and
the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) perceive a decline in Left politics in
West Bengal and the country as a whole with Basu's retirement. His
statement that he would pursue his political activity in whatever
manner possible was ridiculed by some of them as the wishful thinking
of a senior citizen.
Speaking to mediapersons, BJP leader and Rural Development Minister M.
Venkaiah Naidu said that Jyoti Basu's retirement was bound to weaken
the Left further, particularly in West Bengal. Trinamul Congress
leader Sudip Bandopadhyaya said Basu's retirement , coming as it did
hardly six months before the West Bengal Assembly elections, meant
that the veteran Marxist wanted to run away from an electoral battle
that he was sure to lose.
Congress(I) leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that Jyoti Basu had retired
only from the Chief Minister's office and as a politician the Congress
(I) would treat him as it had treated him in the past: "Opposing most
of his policies but agreeing with some such a s the opposition to the
communal BJP." Nothing, added Azad, had happened to change this view.
The reactions from other non-Left parties, including the Janata Dal
(Secular) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have been different.
Ranjan Yadav, RJD leader, said that Jyoti Basu's decision to retire
from chief ministership and to continue in politics opened up new
vistas for secular and people-oriented social and political
intervention in the country.
Many independent political observers hold a similar view. Speaking to
Frontline, political analyst Hariraj Singh Tyagi pointed out that
Jyoti Basu was the only leader who commanded as much respect as Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the nati onal level and that he
should now use it to develop Left politics in a more creative and
proactive manner. Jyoti Basu's "respect-inspiring personality" could
be used by the CPI(M) and other Left parties not only to advance the
causes that were dear to th em but also to forge a broad unity of non-
BJP, non-Congress(I) parties, he remarked.
According to a senior Janata Dal(S) leader who wished to remain
anonymous, Jyoti Basu's presence in national politics is required now
more than ever before, particularly after the CPI(M)'s recent special
conference in Thiruvananthapuram gave a call to ot her political
parties to regroup and form a third alternative. The conference had
noted that "the forces which had fallen into disarray in the last
three years are regrouping again, in the background of the threat
posed by communalism and the attacks on the people's economic
interests."
Does this mean that the only Communist leader in the country who was
offered the Prime Minister's position would spend more time in New
Delhi? The responses from the CPI(M) make it clear that there is no
specific proposal from the party in this regard.
Speaking to Frontline, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat said
that Jyoti Basu's main priority would continue to be West Bengal,
although it will not be in the area of governance. "He would devote
time to strengthen the political campaign ag ainst the anti-Communist,
anti-Left forces in the State during the elections, which are due in
six months." He added that Jyoti Basu would continue his work in the
national capital as the Polit Bureau member of the party, which would
certainly involve ef forts to build a third alternative by mobilising
workers, peasants, the middle class, women, youth, students and the
working people and building a powerful movement for social
transformation. "This concept of building an alternative to the
communal BJP a t the Centre and of effecting a change from the
policies pursued by the Congress(I) is a paramount task of the party
and Jyoti Basu will certainly contribute in that area, but that does
not mean a specific individual role has been assigned to him," Karat
said.
Jyoti Basu had earlier announced that he would retire on September 15
but subsequently decided to continue in office for some more time on
the request of CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. The
party's request and Basu's concurrence came in view of the sustained
campaign carried out by the Trinamul Congress, the principal
Opposition party in West Bengal and a constituent of the NDA, against
the "atrocities of the CPI(M) and its government". Defence Minister
George Fernandes had toured some parts of West Bengal in the company
of Trinamul Congress leader and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on a
"fact-finding mission" and made some statements against the Left Front
government.
The Trinamul Congress had for long sought the dismissal of the West
Bengal government on the grounds of deteriorating law and order.
Although the Centre had not acceded to the request, there was a
perception within the Left Front that the BJP and its ass ociates in
the NDA planned to launch an operation on the lines of the one that
was conducted by the Congress(I) government in Tripura in the early
1990s to throw out the Left Front government led by Nripen
Chakraborty. The Tripura strategy involved the u nleashing of violence
by extremist and lumpen groups in order to create law and order
problems, blaming them on the State government, dismissing it,
installing a new administrative machinery controlled by New Delhi and
then using it to influence election s. The thinking in the CPI(M) and
the Left Front at the time was that a leader of Jyoti Basu's stature
had to be in the Chief Minister's office to handle the situation.
According to Prakash Karat, the CPI(M) is of the view that the NDA
will not repeat the strategy in West Bengal. By all indications, this
perception has facilitated Basu's retirement. "We want to give the new
Chief Minister six months to lead the governme nt and show that the
government is not dependent on Basu's personality alone, as our
opponents like to say," Prakash Karat said.
Volume 17 - Issue 23, Nov. 11 - 24, 2000
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1723/17230220.htm
chhotemianinshallah
By Marcus Dam
KOLKATA, MARCH 30. "A political journey with Jyoti Basu lasting more
than six decades," is how filmmaker Goutam Ghose describes his latest
documentary — one on the nonagenarian Marxist leader and former West
Bengal Chief Minister that is to be screened for the first time to a
private audience here tomorrow.
``I can see the occasion as a very special and emotional experience
for Jyoti Babu who will be there at the theatre in person, along with
some of his old friends and, of course, party colleagues," he told The
Hindu in an exclusive interview today.
Screening in April
Called "Jyoti Basur Shange [With Jyoti Basu]," the two-hour
documentary which took Mr. Ghose seven years to complete, is sub-
titled in English, "Journey with Jyoti Basu," to be ready for
screening in New Delhi next month when the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) holds its congress. "The Bengali title is in line with the
book Jyoti Babu had written called "Janganer Shange [With the
People]," the director said.
It was in 1996 when the idea dawned on Mr. Ghose — known for his
documentaries on, among others, Bismillah Khan, Satyajit Ray, Utpal
Dutt and Dalai Lama — to make a documentary on a politician. "Who else
do I choose but Jyoti Babu ... one of the oldest living politicians in
our country... who has been witness to historical and political events
around the world for nearly a century — from the rise of Fascism, the
breakdown of the Soviet empire, the Emergency in our country to
9/11?"
Funds from friends
The shooting was done in phases — and Mr. Ghose's itinerary included a
visit with Jyoti Basu to his ancestral home in Bangladesh's Dhaka-
Bikrampur district on the banks of the Megna, to London where the
politician had spent a lot of his younger days and places in West
Bengal he had gone on whistle-stop tours, addressing congregations.
"Funds for the documentary were provided by friends and associates;
neither the party nor the State Government was its sponsor," he
added.
All along, as "we travel around the narrative, it was as if I who was
being taken on a journey by Jyoti Babu," Mr. Ghose recalls. The
documentary is "also undoubtedly a historical document, a visual
documentation of events spanning six decades, dotted with anecdotes
dredged out of memory, some giving me goose-pimples on hearing them.
They were part of his interesting experiences in London during the
formative years of his political career ... and include the story of a
father's regrets for not being at the nursing home when his son was
born as that would have meant emerging from the underground and
subsequent arrest."
Contradictions
"And, as he believed so convincingly in dialectics I have tried to put
things in a dialectical order ... The dialectics and contradictions
within the party — like, on whether to become part of the Government
at the Centre some years ago with Jyoti Babu conceding it a historical
blunder not to have done so even if that was the party's decision."
Underpinning the contradictions is "the one between his personal and
public life, that between a partisan with a strong personality, an
individual whose only identity was the one shaped by the party."
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/03/31/stories/2005033103721300.htm
chhotemianinshallah
'It will be a hung Parliament'
The man is 90, appears frail and sleeps fitfully because of his
advanced age. Undeterred by his age or physical condition, Jyoti Basu,
who was Chief Minister of Bengal for a record 26 years, is once again
playing the warrior, all primed to lead the Left's charge from the
front. In an interview with Malabika Bhattacharya, Mr. Basu analyses
the electoral equations and explains the basis on which he makes his
calculations. Excerpts:
Another summer, another election, another challenge. Are you going to
be in the battle or will you stay away?
I am 90 and my health has begun to let me down as a result of which I
am unable to whip myself [into shape] like before to do election work.
But I cannot dream of staying away from the heat and dust of the
election, because like all other true communists it is also my duty to
come forward and help defeat the BJP and all its allies in Bengal.
Till my last breath I will be in the arena, along with other
comrades.
Many in your party foresee the CPI (M) playing a role in determining
who becomes the Prime Minister after the election.
I do not know what situation might emerge after the election, but if
you are referring to the offer of prime ministership that had come to
my party, and for which I had been briefly considered, this will not
happen again. It is not possible anymore.
Do you think that a coalition government is the order of the day? The
Congress has also come round to accepting this idea.
Yes, nothing other than [a] coalition is a reality nowadays. The
Congress made a mistake by not accepting this earlier.
Your party has been interacting with the Congress. What is its view on
coalition politics now?
They (the Congress) sought our opinion and some of us (the Left
parties) told them that they should form a government with their
allies. They may be small groups, regional parties and the like. If
they need our support, we will certainly vote in their favour.
Who will be Prime Minister?
That, of course, the people will decide. Some people object to Sonia
Gandhi as Prime Minister because of her foreign origin. Anyhow, we
will discuss this issue later. What is more important is to see what
kind of programmes the Congress offers. The Congress had made certain
wrong decisions in the economic field for which they got isolated from
the people. True, it's the largest non-communal party in the country
today but it should also own its past mistakes. Manmohan Singh (former
Union Finance Minister) told me that the Congress was preparing its
programme. Your party has finally accepted the idea of collaborating
with the Congress, which you have been advocating in the face of
resistance to the idea for quite sometime. Your comment.
Our party thinks that we cannot equate the Congress with the BJP, even
though both the parties represent the bourgeoisie. But after the rise
of the BJP, the Congress has assumed great importance. It's a non-
communal party although it has made certain compromises with
communalism. We told them that its policy of soft communalism will not
work.
What is the agreement between the Left parties and the Congress?
Our position is very clear. We will put up candidates in some
constituencies, but in 90 per cent of them where we are not a force,
we shall tell our supporters to vote for the Congress. Our main
objective is to resist [the] BJP.
You are one politician who gets election results right. Do you think
the Congress may come to power?
I am getting a feeling that it will be a hung Parliament. Our people
tell me that [the] BJP will get less votes this time.
But do you think the Congress stands a chance?
Mulayam Singh Yadav is playing a very bad role. I hear that he is
being contacted by the BJP. If he refuses to collaborate with the
Congress in Uttar Pradesh, it would be bad news. Mulayam should
acknowledge the fact that the Congress is the largest secular party in
the country. But he does not. He says he will have no truck with the
Congress. This is terrible. If he sticks to this stand, it will be a
major problem. But Laloo Prasad Yadav has no problem with the
Congress.
Are you not disappointed with Laloo Prasad Yadav whom the Left parties
upheld as the champion of secular forces?
Absolutely disappointed. Very dissatisfied about the way he is going.
Why don't you try to change his attitude?
My people are talking to him. Let's see what happens.
Will your party join a coalition government led by the Congress?
At the moment, our view is that we will not be in the Government but
will support a secular Government. Whatever its class character, ours
will be issue-based support. We will first see what programmes the
Congress offers.
The Congress' failure to project a Prime Minister will have an adverse
impact on the voter. Your comment.
I don't think it will matter much. The general idea in a parliamentary
democracy is that a party must project a Prime Minister. But we have
previous instances when that did not happen. I think Sonia has rightly
said that the people will decide on the Prime Minister after the poll.
I know there are many who oppose the BJP and favour the Congress but
cannot accept Sonia as Prime Minister for her foreign origin.
What about you?
If the Congress emerges as a majority party and it decides to have
Sonia as Prime Minister, we have no problem. After all, the
Constitution does not prevent her from occupying the office.
Do you think that the entry of the young Gandhis, Rahul and Priyanka,
into the Congress will help the party to collect more ballots?
You see, there are backward masses who are politically conscious but
attach a great deal of importance to individuals. I find from
newspapers that they (Rahul and Priyanka) are creating some enthusiasm
among the youth.
Many charge the CPI (M) with doublespeak. On one hand, it is depending
on the Congress to resist the BJP. On the other it is opposing the
party in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. How do you explain this
dichotomy?
There is no contradiction. We are telling the people that the
situation is different in different parts of the country. Take Bengal.
We are in office here for the sixth time in a row. We will have to
contest the Congress. We cannot accommodate the Congress here.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/03/17/stories/2004031701341200.htm
chhotemianinshallah
TNN 7 January 2010, 06:09am IST
KOLKATA: An early morning scare fuelled daylong alarm about CPM
patriarch Jyoti Basu’s health on Wednesday. ‘Jyoti Basu dead,’
screamed some websites, fuelling rumours that had the entire city
holding its breath. A medical bulletin in the evening finally reined
in the alarmists. Basu is in a critical condition, but improving, it
said.
Doctors hope that the ‘positive changes’ persist for the next 36
hours. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is arriving in the city around
noon on Thursday to visit Basu.
What started the scare was Basu being put on ventilator support early
on Wednesday to control a “serious breathing problem”. Basu, who is
suffering from pneumonia, was admitted to AMRI Hospital, Salt Lake, on
New Year’s Day.
The 95-year-old leader’s condition took a turn for the worse around 3
am on Wednesday, say sources. The paramedical staff attending to him
round-the-clock raised the alarm when they saw him gasping for breath
despite oxygen support. For nearly an hour, efforts were made to
restore normal breathing. By then, other parameters, like blood
pressure, had started fluctuating. With no option left, the medical
board decided to switch to ventilator support. During his previous
hospital stays, Basu has never needed this.
“He had to be put on ventilator since his condition was not very
stable. The response has not been very encouraging. He has respiratory
problems. New medicines have been given. It has to be seen how he
responds,” said A K Maity, Basu’s long-standing doctor and a member of
the medical board.
By the time the city and the rest of the country had woken up, Basu’s
doctors and paramedics were in a battle to save his life. At 11.30 am,
a medical bulletin said Basu’s condition was critical. From then on,
all roads led to the hospital.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Basu-on-ventilator-support/articleshow/5418593.cms
bademiyansubhanallah
Kolkata, Thu, 07 Jan 2010 ANI
Kolkata, Jan 7 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the
AMRI hospital in Salt Lake to see CPM leader and former West Bengal
Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, whose health condition is still reported to
be critical.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also accompanied Dr.
Singh to the nursing home and spent some time inquiring about Basu's
health.
Basu's health condition deteriorated on Wednesday morning, following
which he has been put on a ventilator for the last 24 hours.
There are reports that despite Basu's condition critical, his blood
pressure has stabilized.
Basu is being treated for pneumonia at the AMRI hospital in Salt Lake
here.
The 95-year-old former West Bengal Chief Minister was kept under
observation for the last three days in the ICU.
The veteran leader was admitted here on Friday following a severe
chest infection.he doctors after conducting a proper check-up had
earlier detected that he was suffering from slight pneumonia.
Earlier in July 2009, Basu was admitted to the hospital complaining of
discomfort in the abdomen and a disturbed sleep. (ANI)
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/142253
bademiyansubhanallah
Agencies
Posted: Thursday , Jan 07, 2010 at 1441 hrs
Updated:Thursday , Jan 07, 2010 at 1608 hrs
Kolkata:
PM Manmohan Singh along with WB CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee leaves
after visiting ailing CPM leader Jyoti Basu in Kolkata.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured doctors attending CPI(M) leader
Jyoti Basu that arrangements would be made to bring experts from other
parts of the country if required for treatment of the ailing 95-year-
old leader.
"Prime Minister discussed treatment procedures with doctors and
assured them that if any other doctors are required for consultation
from any part of India for Basu's treatment, he can make arrangements
if informed," former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said quoting
him.
Chatterjee, who was present at the hospital, said the doctors told the
Prime Minister that they would inform him if the situation so
required.
The Prime Minister, accompanied by Union Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and WBPCC working
President Pradip Bhattacharya, was in the hospital for nearly 20
minutes.
Chatterjee said Singh also spoke to Basu's son Chandan and conveyed
his best wishes for the ailing leader's speedy recovery.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also accompanied Dr. Singh to the nursing home
and spent some time inquiring about Basu's health.
Basu's health condition deteriorated on Wednesday morning, following
which he has been put on a ventilator for the last 24 hours.
There are reports that despite Basu's condition critical, his blood
pressure has stabilized.
Earlier in July 2009, Basu was admitted to the hospital complaining of
discomfort in the abdomen and a disturbed sleep.
7 Comments |
Mr
By: Shloka Bose | Friday , 8 Jan '10 2:39:57 AM
I am not sure what's legacy of Jyotirindra Basu. A failed state(all
stats close to Bihar), one who choked the industrial development, one
who gifted militant labour recidivist, vitiated all the universities
and colleges with Red terror movements. Probably only achievement is
maintaining stranglehold on power from 1977-2000. USSR is long
dead...with all humility please move along.
doctors for basu- are u serious?
By: surya, chicago | Friday , 8 Jan '10 1:19:36 AM
once you cross 90 the rasons for extraordinary efforts wont make
sense.sounds comical in fact. If telephonic consultations are arranged
that too with deshi doctors, thats acceptable. Dont insult indian
physicians by calling foreigners. There simply is no need for that
given the talent and technology available there. we all pray for his
health.
PM offers medical help to Basu
By: sushil verma | Thursday , 7 Jan '10 20:20:26 PM
While PM's offer to bring experts from any part of India to assist in
Jyoti Basu's treatment is appriciated, it is misplaced. Who will bear
the cost of it? Will the PM pay from his own pocket? Obviously not. We
the poor people of India will pay for it. Is Basu's life more precious
than anyone else's life who go completely untreated because of not
having the means to get even basic medical help. The man is 95 years
old. How much longer can he be sustained by bringing in better
expertise? And then are not doctors in Kolkata capable enough to
provide the needed treatment? Sure he is getting th best treatment,
the cpst of which is borne by the public, that is, you and I. Even in
a communist regime some lives are worth more than others.
Willing Good Health of Mr Jyoti Basu
By: Shankha Mitra | Thursday , 7 Jan '10 18:39:32 PM
Praying God for his Good Health & Recovery
Arogyaniketan
By: sandip | Thursday , 7 Jan '10 18:35:14 PM
PM's offer to bring any doctor from any part of the country to extend
the life of a 95 yr old man reminded me of the famous Bengali novel
'Arogyaniketan'. How long will PM's special doctors stop
'Mrityudevata'?
He is 95 for GOD's SAKE.......
By: sam knight | Thursday , 7 Jan '10 17:19:10 PM
I've nothing against this man but just because he is a politician is
his life worth anymore than thousands of others who die unnecessarily
due to poverty in our country???HE is 95 and its time to go and am
saddened to see PM offering any help to bring in anybody including GOD
if necessary.....
Regarding Jyoti Basu's Critics
By: Mabjul Islam Chowdhury | Thursday , 7 Jan '10 16:53:39 PM
Best wishes to PM M Singh for his visiting at Kolkata for J basu's
critic We also want to co operate with other movers for the
humanitarian movement Thanks And Regards
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pm-offers-to-arrange-doctors-for-basus-treatment/564595/
bademiyansubhanallah
Express News Service
Posted: Thursday , Jan 07, 2010 at 0214 hrs
Kolkata:
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was among those who
visited the ailing CPM veteran in the hospital on Wednesday. Partha
Paul
Jyoti Basu critical, on Hundreds of people with glum faces and tear-
filled eyes thronged the premises of the AMRI hospital after the news
of former chief minister and veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu being put
on ventilation spread.
After a few websites flashed news of Basu’s demise - it turned out to
be a rumour - people from every corner of the city, cutting across
social strata, gathered outside the hospital.
Political luminaries, including Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, CPM’s
Biman Bose and Nirupam Sen, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath
Chatterjee and senior state Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee visited
Basu in the afternoon. However, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
was yet to visit the hospital till last reports came in.
“The brain of Jyoti Basu is very strong. We want him to live. I am
told by the doctors he did not respond to the old antibiotics and his
medicines have been changed. The doctors are observing whether he is
responding to the new antibiotics,” said Banerjee.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose was at pains to scotch rumours of
Basu’s death that spread through the city earlier in the day. “We did
not declare Basu had died. A few websites published false information
about his death. It is a baseless rumour. His condition is critical
and the doctors are monitoring his condition.”
Senior CPM leader Tarit Baran Topdar almost broke down while entering
the hospital. “I am not in a position to comment,” he said amid sobs.
State Agriculture Minister Naren Dey could not walk towards the
hospital on his own and had to take help from police officers as he
fell after reaching the AMRI hospital.
Babu, a 10-year-old boy who works at a tea-stall near the hospital,
had to be dragged away by his employer from the hospital’s gates where
he had dug heels since morning, leaving behind his work.The police and
the administration had a tough time today managing the crowd. The
traffic management on the EM Bypass collapsed after a huge snarl
formed near the AMRI, blocking all approaching roads.
Around 2 pm, crowd became so unwieldy that Joykrishna Ghosh, Basu’s
personal assistant, had to announce that the CPM veteran was very much
alive.
“We are receiving scores of calls asking about Jyoti Basu’s death.
Hundreds of people have gathered here. This is creating inconvenience
for other patients who are admitted in the hospital. He is alive but
critical. Please do not spread rumours,” Ghosh said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/amid-tears-prayers-go-out-for-jyoti-basus-triumph/564407/0
bademiyansubhanallah
Express News Service
Posted: Thursday , Jan 07, 2010 at 0204 hrs
Kolkata:
Former CM Siddhartha Shankar Ray scans an album having Basu’s photos.
Subham Dutta
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was described as
“critical” on Wednesday evening. The 96-year-old CPM patriarch who was
admitted to AMRI hospital in Salt Lake on New Year’s Day with
pneumonia and breathlessness, was put on a ventilator early on
Wednesday after his condition worsened.
A medical bulletin released by the hospital at 6 pm said, “Shri Jyoti
Basu... was diagnosed with pneumonia. His condition deteriorated today
morning and he had to be put upon ventillation. His present condition
continued to be critical though he has shown some positive changes
since the last bulletin at 11.30 am. The doctors of the medical board
are constantly monitoring him. The medical board members will review
his condition tomorrow at 11 am and the next medical bulletin will be
issued tomorrow at 11.30 am.”
D N Agarwal, executive director of the hospital, however, said Basu
was better in the evening than he was in the morning: “He has been on
antibiotics. He is still critical... his condition was very serious in
the morning but now it is somewhat better,” Agarwal said while
releasing the medical bulletin.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee to enquire about Basu’s health. Leaders of all hues,
including CPM state committee secretary Biman Bose, Bengal ministers
Nirupam Sen, Partha Dey and Naren Dey, Congress leader Subrata
Mukherjee and Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the
hospital. Football legend Chuni Goswamy and Bangladesh Deputy High
Commissiner Maksud Alam too turned up.
Basu’s son, Chandan Bose, was at the hospital for four hours. A large
crowd thronged the hospital gates all day as rumours floated around.
Emerging from the hospital, Biman Bose asked people not to believe
anything other than the hospital bulletin. “Nothing has happened...
Web sites are coming out with wrong information. Please go by what the
doctors say. Do not listen to any rumour,” Bose said.
Mamata Banerjee made a similar appeal: “His medicines have been
changed and new antibiotics have been given. Please do not listen to
any rumour.”
Meanwhile, senior state officials said PM Manmohan Singh will come to
Kolkata tomorrow to visit Basu.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jyoti-basu-critical-on-ventilator/564397/0
bademiyansubhanallah
Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda also visited Basu at the
hospital.
Jyoti Basu's ventilation support was reduced on Friday morning.
However, there was no significant change in his condition. (NDTV
Photo)
chhotemianinshallah
Jan 8, 2010 04:15 EST
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rushed to Kolkata on Thursday just
to pay a 22-minute visit to the hospital where 96-year-old Jyoti Basu
is battling for life, the trip spoke volumes about the communist
patriarch’s relevance in Indian politics.
India’s longest serving chief minister is on ventilator support but
the throngs of teary-eyed followers outside the hospital, the 24×7
mediapersons camping outside and the steady stream of political
dignitaries indicate the respect Basu commands across the political
spectrum.
The Prime Minister offered to fly in experts from anywhere in India to
treat Basu.
A day later, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda also visited the
ailing leader in Kolkata.
“I remember what Jyoti Basu has sacrificed. He made me the prime
minister of this country,” Gowda told reporters recalling the
political stalemate in 1996.
In May 1996, Basu, then firmly in the saddle as the longest serving
chief minister of West Bengal, was on the verge of becoming India’s
first communist prime minister as a consensus choice amid political
chicanery.
The United Front government, comprising the Left Front and the
National Front, wanted him as its leader, but Basu’s own party
puritans would not allow him to accept the post.
Thus, India missed its first communist prime minister.
Basu himself had later dubbed the episode as a “historic blunder” and
referred to it in a biography by Surabhi Banerjee.
“I was constantly being coaxed into accepting the key post. I was
simply waiting for the party’s stand now. I was inclined to accept the
onerous but unanimous offer for the credibility of the Third Front and
secondly for solving the stalemate.”
In November 2000, Basu voluntarily stepped down as the chief minister
of West Bengal, paving the way for his deputy Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
to take over.
Basu, even in reclusion forced by failing health, remains the poster
boy of Indian communism. Till recently he was a crowd-puller in
election campaigns.
The anxiety of his followers, the tears, the flurry of media
activities outside the hospital and the air-dashing political royalty,
mainly those from rival political outfits, vouch for it.
http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2010/01/08/ailing-jyoti-basu-still-poster-boy-of-indian-communism/
chhotemianinshallah
Jyoti Basu's condition deteriorates (Roundup)
Kolkata, Jan 9
The condition of critically ill Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu,
hospitalised with pneumonia, deteriorated Saturday with doctors saying
the 95-year-old leader had slipped into drowsiness with the infection
affecting multiple organs.
Anxiety about the health of the former West Bengal chief minister
increased with the private AMRI hospital, where Basu is being kept in
the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) on partial ventilator support,
Saturday issuing bulletins on his worsening condition. "There has been
deterioration of his general condition," said the morning bulletin.
"He has developed fluid retention, and there has been a drop in urine
output. He is also feeling drowsy. This signifies involvement of
multiple organs," it said.
The evening bulletin said there was no change in Basu's condition with
the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader's kidney
functioning being closely monitored though the urinary output
increased slightly following medication.
"His condition remains the same. The urinary output has slightly
increased because of the medicines given. His kidney condition is
under watch," the bulletin said.
Executive director D.N. Agarwal said Basu had not undergone dialysis
so far, but "If necessary, doctors will decide on this".
To a query, Agarwal said the eight-member medical board treating Basu
was constantly in touch with specialists in the country's premier
medical facility All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
"Whenever needed, we can contact the respective doctors through e-mail
and phone".
An attending doctor told IANS that Basu had an irregular heartbeat,
while the bulletin said "his cardiac condition remains the same". With
Basu's blood pressure fluctuating, he was being administered
ionotropes to stabilise it.
Concern was writ large on the faces of CPI-M leaders, who were
constantly going in and coming out of the hospital after consultations
with doctors. CPI-M secretary Biman Bose, his party comrade and state
chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former Lok Sabha Speaker
Somnath Chatterjee were among those who visited the hospital.
Addressing a ruling Left Front rally at Barasat in North 24 Parganas,
Bhattacharjee said: "Basu is in a critical state. The doctors are
treating him in a difficult situation. We all want that he should get
well."
Bhattacharjee disclosed that Basu did not want to be hospitalised.
"But we took no risk and had him admitted on Jan 1." Basu was admitted
to the hospital near his Salt Lake residence following chest
congestion and infection and shifted to the ICCU Jan 2. He was put on
ventilator support early Jan 6 after an acute respiratory problem.
A bronchoscopy done on Basu has revealed that the pneumonia attack was
aggravated by some highly drug-resistant bacteria strains. After
receiving the drug sensitivity report of Basu's lung fluid culture
test. the medicos have decided to continue the same doses of
intravenous antibiotics administered to him.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the hospital Thursday and has
been monitoring the health condition of the veteran leader.
Following an offer from the prime minister to arrange for specialists,
the medical board held a tele-conference with AIIMS experts Friday.
Basu holds the record for the longest 23-year old stint as chief
minister from June 1977 to November 2000. He stepped down voluntarily
on health grounds.
Last updated on Jan 9th, 2010 at 21:47 pm IST--IANS
http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a106307.html
chhotemianinshallah
Kolkata, Jan 9
Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman, who is having frequent run-ins with
party supremo Mamata Banerjee, Saturday visited the private hospital
where Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu is admitted and said he was
learning forbearance from the veteran leader.
"I am still learning forbearance from Jyoti Basu. In his time, he
faced a lot of criticism but he never reacted to it. He always
maintained silence. I doubt if any other politician have faced similar
criticism in his life. I am also now trying to master the art of
keeping mum," Suman told mediapersons after emerging out of the
hospital.
The Lok Sabha member from South 24 Parganas' Jadavpur constituency had
drawn Banerjee's ire for accusing a section of party leaders of
misusing funds allocated for development work.
Banerjee, also the railways minister, had termed Suman as a guest in
her party and later Magsaysay award winner Mahasweta Devi and other
members of the city intelligentsia close to the Trinamool ironed out
the differences.
Recently, Suman also kicked up a storm after composing and rendering a
song eulogising pro-Maoist People's Committee Against Police
Atrocities (PCAPA) leader Chattradhar Mahato.
Banerjee immediately distanced her party from Suman's stand on Mahato
saying the Trinamool did not endorse the singer's view. She said Suman
was an artist and an outsider in the party who was at liberty to
express his personal opinion through music.
Friday, Suman attended a railway programme where Banerjee was also
present, but he seemed isolated.
Talking to the media after coming out of the hospital, Suman seemed
nostalgic as he talked of his personal recollections of Basu.
"When I came back from Europe and was planning to bring out my own
musical album, one day I went to attend a political gathering where
Jyoti Basu was the chief speaker.
"He came and addressed the audience in such a way that everyone
present over there clapped and listened to his speech," Suman said.
Last updated on Jan 9th, 2010 at 23:44 pm IST--IANS
http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a106319.html
bademiyansubhanallah
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Jan 10, 2010 at 1312 hrs
Kolkata:
The condition of 95-year-old CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu was
marginally better on Sunday, though he continued to remain critical,
doctors attending on him said.
"His general condition is marginally better than yesterday, but still
critical and he is on partial ventilation," Executive Director of
private AMRI hospital D N Agarwal told reporters.
Agarwal, who gave a break up of the functioning of Basu's vital
organs, said, "his central nervous system is better in comparison to
yesterday and his cardio-vascular system is more or less stable."
Basu's blood pressure was being maintained with a minimum dose of
stabilising drug, Ionotropes, and his lungs were showing some signs of
improvement. "Infection is being adequately treated," he said.
His urine output has picked up and no dialysis was necessary at the
moment, he said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/basu-marginally-better-still-critical/565592/
bademiyansubhanallah
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Jan 10, 2010 at 1132 hrs
Kolkata:
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday said had Jyoti
Basu been allowed to become the prime minister of the country, people
would have seen a better India.
"I am sure the situation of the country would have been much better,
if Jyoti Basu was allowed by his party to take up the job offered by
the United Front in 1996," Yadav told reporters after visiting the
ailing Marxist leader at a hospital here.
Basu would have set an example for others to follow, if he had become
the country's premier, he said. Yadav claimed that Basu had lost by a
single vote the CPI-M politburo election on the issue of allowing the
veteran leader to become the prime minister of the country.
"It was an unfortunate decision by the CPI(M) politburo as Basu is a
leader above party line," he said. Yadav wished Basu a speedy
recovery.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/basu-as-pm-would-have-changed-india-for-better-mulayam/565578/
bademiyansubhanallah
Express News Service
Posted: Monday , Jan 11, 2010 at 0258 hrs
PM, Basu and Karats
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Kolkata to see ailing CPM
leader Jyoti Basu, the SPG’s security instructions were clear that
only four persons could stay in the room where the Prime Minister was
to be received, on the ninth floor of the hospital.
As a result, CPM’s Brinda Karat had to make an exit which then left
Sitaram Yechury, Somnath Chatterjee, Biman Bose and Chandan Basu, the
ailing patriarch’s son, in the room.
And since Prakash Karat could not make it on time because of fog
delaying his flight in Delhi, the Prime Minister’s possible rendezvous
with CPM’s first couple, the Karats, did not happen.
The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Pranab Mukherjee,
apparently spent some time with West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
when they travelled together in the same car from the Kolkata airport
to the hospital.
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, who was in Kolkata, chose not to make
matters difficult and didn’t turn up at the airport but sent Dinesh
Trivedi, MoS, Health, to the hospital.
Chandan throws tantrums
VETERAN CPM leader Jyoti Basu’s son, Chandan Basu, is nowadays an
angry man. He was angry over the fact that when Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh visited AMRI Hospital with other leaders — Union
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee — to meet his ailing father, his wife was not introduced
to the PM. Instead, she was confined to a room along with the rest of
the family. So the young Basu feels that CPM has failed to give due
recognition to the veteran leader’s family. Earlier, he also had a
tiff his father’s personal assistant, Joykrishna Ghosh, on who will
sign the medical papers. After Basu was admitted to the hospital,
Chandan want to take the charge of all the responsibility from Ghosh,
who for the past several years has been looking after the former chief
minister.
Media bash at AMRI
AFTER the rumours of former chief minister Jyoti Basu’s demise spread
across the city, a senior CPM leader and former MP rushed to AMRI
Hospital in Salt Lake almost in tears. When he entered the hospital,
he looked completely distraught, but after visiting Basu he looked
completely relieved.
As the waiting mediapersons surrounded him to know about Basu’s
condition, the visibly annoyed CPM leader blamed the media for not
allowing the Marxist patriarch to live in peace — both when he was the
chief minister and when he is now in a critical condition.
Chai, snacks with a dose of rumour
WITH CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu admitted at the AMRI Hospital, the area
surrounding AMRI hospital has turned into a mini fair. From a horde of
mediapersons, locals to CPM workers and leaders, all of them keep
visiting the area day and night. And this has helped the vendors to do
a brisk business. Not only this, as over a hundred journalists and
technicians stand guard 24x7 and mob any person leaving the hospital
for a byte, the area seems to not sleep at all. Add to this the
discussions, friendly chats and even altercations that keep the area
buzzing. With most of the discussions centering Basu’s health, there
are also many rumour mongers and their ‘logical theories’. “I say he
is dead and the party is hushing up the entire matter,” said on
journalist. “No! You are wrong. He is stable and alive,” retorted
another.
Next on Didi’s artistic mind?
IT seems that Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee is completely devoted
to artiste community. Renaming Metro stations after actor Uttam Kumar
and poet Nazrul Islam was just the beginning followed by the
inauguration of Tapan Sinha Memorial hospital in Tollygunge. Now, the
Trinamool leader is impatiently waiting to unveil Satyajit Ray Sports
Complex named after the greatest film director. And above all, she has
umpteen plans to dedicate scores of such projects in the name of
actors, poets, leaders. So which artistes are next in the row? It’s
not a secret after all, as she recently spilled the beans saying, “I
have not forgotten Ritwick Ghatak. Then there are artists like Kishore
Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Hemanata Mukherjee all whom the people love.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kolkata-confidential/565850/0
chhotemianinshallah
Don Sebastian / DNA
Monday, January 11, 2010 2:27 IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Young comrades are being asked to talk filmy. They
are also being asked to go on Twitter and Facebook.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), a feeder organisation
of the CPI(M), has urged its cadre to mouth Mammootty’s one-liners and
talk about Mohanlal’s killer smiles with as much verve as they would
discuss the Liberhan report and the Asean free-trade agreement. All
this is being done to woo film fans into the DYFI.
“The spread of fans’ associations in villages indicate the apolitical
trends in our society. More and more youngsters are attracted to them.
DYFI units should, therefore, think of ways to attract them [fans] to
the organisation,” says a report presented at DYFI’s 11th state
conference in Thiruvananthapuram.
The document urges activists to net youths who stray into
organisations promoted by religious groups. It also wants the cadre to
form labour clubs and counter the mushrooming of self-help groups. A
survey by the DYFI says that 41% of youths in Kerala never took part
in any political demonstration and 33% are into active politics.
The organisation wants its members to log on to new media to spread
the ideology. DYFI members had been painting the town red with
revolutionary slogans and iconic imagery. Soon, they’ll be taking it
to social networking sites.
District committees have been directed to monitor the organised
propaganda on the Internet, particularly Orkut and Facebook.
CPI(M) leaders have been complaining of a mala fide campaign against
the party and its leaders through email forwards and discussion fora.
The youth organisation urges its members to sign up for their own
blogs and launch a counter propaganda. There would be a surge of
tweeting comrades if the document finds many takers.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_comrades-asked-to-talk-about-marx-and-mohanlal_1333250
Sid Harth
Socialist agenda
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN AND T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
The 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties
reiterates their commitment to socialism.
SANDEEP SAXENA
SITARAM YECHURY, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, A.B. Bardhan, CPI general
secretary, and Prakash Karat, CPI(M) general secretary, with foreign
delegates at the public session of the meeting.
“OVER the last few years one has heard this constant prattle that
socialism is dead and that Communist parties have lost their
relevance. We have gathered here today to disprove that propaganda and
state firmly that the idea of socialism and the political-
organisational role of the Communist and workers’ parties would
continue to be relevant as long as human beings struggle for justice
and a better life, free from hunger and other material deficiencies.”
These were the words of A.B. Bardhan, general secretary of the
Communist Party of India (CPI), at the concluding session of the three-
day 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties
held in New Delhi between November 20 and 22. The final session, which
was open to the public, attracted a significant gathering of Left
supporters, and the crowd greeted the veteran Indian Communist
leader’s pronouncement enthusiastically. Bardhan said that the
discussions over the past three days among the 89 representatives of
57 Communist and workers’ parties from 48 countries was aimed not at
etching out visions of immediate victories but at essentially
reiterating a commitment to socialist values and workers’ and peoples’
struggles.
Reiteration of this commitment was the essence of the speeches made by
Communist leaders from Cuba, the United States, Palestine and Israel
at the last session. Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves of the Communist
Party of Cuba spoke and concluded his speech by saying that the Cuban
people were friends of the people of the U.S. and were enemies only of
U.S. imperialism, which has been trying to overthrow the socialist
government of Cuba ever since its inception. Scott Marshall, of the
Communist Party of USA (CPUSA), who spoke immediately after Cordoves,
started his speech by repeating the words used by the Cuban leader.
He said: “Speaking for the Communist Party of USA, I also say that we
are very good friends of the people of USA but enemies of U.S.
imperialism and its expansionist designs.” Faten Kamal Ghattas of the
Communist Party of Israel and Fawaz of the Palestine Communist Party
jointly announced the resolve of the two parties to strive for the
legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. The significance of the
Cuban and U.S. leaders on one side and the Palestinian and Israeli
leaders on the other expressing a similar political commitment was not
lost on anyone.
Along with these expressions of socialist solidarity, the meeting also
adopted the Delhi Declaration, which delineated the participants’
common understanding of the current global situation. A six-point
concrete action plan that would be coordinated globally was also
adopted after the three-day deliberations. The declaration and the
action plan were presented by Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of
the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was one of the co-hosts
of the meeting along with the CPI.
The concrete action plan included decisions to struggle against the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and its global expansion,
the renewed military aggressiveness of imperialists and its foreign
military bases. It also gave a call to observe November 29 as a day of
solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, to celebrate the 65th
anniversary of the defeat of fascism in 2010 and to intensify
international solidarity for the release of the Cuban Five jailed in
the U.S. The plan also contained decisions to strengthen popular
mobilisations in defence of workers’ rights in coordination with trade
unions, strengthen popular movements and demand the right to work in
coordination with youth organisations.
THE CONTEXT
Speaking on the occasion, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI
(M), pointed out that the Delhi conference marked the continuation of
a fraternity and an organisational cooperation mechanism that
Communist and workers’ parties had built up over the past decade and a
half. The context for building up this mechanism was the tumultuous
developments in the last years of the 20th century, which included the
dismantling of socialism in the Soviet Union, the disintegration of
that country, the collapse of the Communist-led regimes in eastern
Europe and the process of restoration of capitalism in these
countries.
In this situation, a backgrounder released by the organisers of the
meeting pointed out many Communist parties had wilted under the
pressure of the ideological offensive and “abandoned the revolutionary
essence of Marxism-Leninism and embraced social democracy”. However,
there were some Communist and workers’ parties that believed these
shortcomings and failures were not due to the inadequacies of Marxism-
Leninism or the lack of scientific method in its content but to the
inadequacies and lack of scientific rigour on the part of those who
were apparently practising the philosophy. It was with this premise
that efforts were made to regroup the international communist movement
and bring together those Communist and workers’ parties that believed
in the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism.
The CPI(M) initiated one such attempt in 1993 by organising an
international seminar on the “Contemporary World Situation and the
Validity of Marxism”. Its success imparted a new confidence to the
participants, and five years later, in 1998, the Communist Party of
Greece (KKE) took up the task of organising international meetings to
exchange opinions on important contemporary developments. The KKE went
on to organise seven more meetings in the following years, and with
each meeting, there was a steady increase in the number of
participants. Consequently, this led to the formation of a working
group of international Communist and workers’ parties, which decided
on the theme of each meeting, its venue and the parties that would be
attending. Seven meetings were held in Greece.
In following years, meetings were held in Lisbon, Minsk, Moscow and
Sao Paulo. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in South Africa.
The theme of the Delhi conference was “The international capitalist
crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the
role of the communist and working class movement”. The delegates
deliberated on the different dimensions of the subject over three
days, both in continent-specific groups and collectively, leading to
the formulation of the Delhi Declaration. The sharing of experiences
and perspectives unravelled the varied and nuanced approaches adopted
by the parties in their respective countries even as all of them
sought to pursue the ideals of class struggle and socialism.
An important point of discussion was the regime change in the U.S.
with the election of President Barack Obama. All the speakers from
Latin American countries underlined that for the progressive forces
and processes in their region, Obama’s coming to power did not
indicate any favourable change. They pointed out that it only
represented a new and more intelligent tactic of Empire to stall the
march of progressive forces in the region. They underlined the various
steps taken by the U.S. under Obama to strengthen forces of reaction
in the region. The coup d’etat in Honduras was repeatedly mentioned in
this context. Oscar Cordoves specifically debunked the media-created
impression that the Obama administration had begun dismantling the
half-century-old criminal blockade against Cuba. He underlined that
Obama had the power but not the political will to change the U.S.’
imperial methods. The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) supplemented
the argument by pointing out how U.S. imperialism had encouraged and
supported fundamentalist and reactionary forces in its country,
including the two-year-long military-supported dictatorial rule.
Scott Marshall pointed out that Obama’s victory in the election was an
outcome of the struggle to defeat the reactionary right regime of
Bush. He said that there were mixed feelings about Obama’s role. “Let
me be clear, he is not a communist, he is not a socialist and on some
issues, he is quite a moderate liberal.” Marshall pointed out that the
percentage of long-term unemployed workers in the U.S. had reached
levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“In the beginning of the crisis, we were losing 700,000 jobs or more a
month. Today, when some mainstream economists are declaring the
recession over, when obscene banking profits are on the rise again,
when the stock market is rising again, when finance capital is
returning to its unregulated, predatory ways with a vengeance, we are
still losing around 200,000 jobs a month. Among young people in the
U.S., the figures of the unemployed are staggering. In the age group
of 16 to 24, only about 45 per cent have jobs. And that number is much
worse for African-American, Latino and other racially oppressed
youth.” Marshall underlined the fact that in the current context it
was significant that the largest trade union organisation in the U.S.,
the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial
Organisations (AFL-CIO), had been impelled to rediscover its working-
class roots, as witnessed in its 2009 convention.
Baudouin Deckers of the Workers Party of Belgium said: “Some parties
in Europe, claiming to be communist or having recently abandoned
communism, persist in defending a Left reformist position, an updated
version of social democracy. The European Left is not worried about
seeking paths towards socialism because this is not its goal.
Obtaining partial improvements within the current system is already
sufficiently ambitious. We will never collaborate with these attempts
to bind workers to capitalism and imperialism. We are currently
engaged in a major campaign for a tax on millionaires, a tax that
would hit the 72,000 euro-millionaire families in Belgium. Compared to
the population, it is the largest number in the European Union.”
CHINA IN ‘PRIMARY STAGE OF SOCIALISM’
The point of view expressed by Ai Ping of the Communist Party of China
(CPC) also evoked considerable interest. He stated categorically that
China had not deviated from the socialist path. He said: “Some
parties, due to lack of knowledge about the national conditions of
China, think that China has given up Marxism and has deviated from the
socialist path, and some even call China’s system authoritarian
capitalism. China is, and will be for a long time to come, at the
primary stage of socialism. There are no references in the classics on
how to carry forward Marxism and develop socialism with our special
national conditions. The CPC has always upheld Marxism as our
fundamental guiding ideology. In order to deal with the crisis and
maintain steady and rapid economic growth, the CPC and the Chinese
government timely adjusted the macroeconomic policies by adopting a
proactive fiscal policy and moderately relaxed monetary policy. The
global financial crisis has not bottomed yet and there are many
potential risks in the world economy. Such crises cannot be eradicated
and will recur periodically as long as the private ownership of
capitalism and the inherent contradiction remain unchanged.”
CRISIS OF CAPITALISM
The Delhi Declaration, which drew from the points raised during the
deliberations and formulated the common perspective of the conference,
pointed out that the current capitalist crisis had left no field
untouched and had led to the closing of hundreds of thousands of
factories; caused tremendous stress on agrarian and rural economies,
intensifying the misery and poverty of millions of cultivators and
farm workers globally; and left millions of people jobless and
homeless. The declaration pointed out that unemployment was growing to
unprecedented levels and was officially expected to breach the 50-
million mark. Inequalities were increasing across the globe, the rich
were getting richer and the poor poorer.
The declaration stressed that the response of respective capitalist
governments to overcome this crisis had failed to address the basic
causes of the crisis. It also pointed out that all the neoliberal
votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had decried
the state, were now utilising the state to rescue them, thus
underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state had always defended
and enlarged avenues for super profits.
While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public
expense, the benefits accrue to a few. The bailout packages announced
are aimed first at rescuing and then enlarging profit-making avenues.
Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making
profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages are the
burdens of the working people even as the corporations are given gifts
in the form of bailout packages.
Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the
destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire
burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change onto the
shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism’s
proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little
relation to the goal of protecting the environment. Corporate-inspired
“Green development” and “green economy” are sought to be used to
impose new state monopoly regulations, which support profit
maximisation and impose new hardships on people. Profit maximisation
under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection
and peoples’ rights. The declaration noted that the only way out of
this capitalist crisis for the working class and the common people was
to intensify struggles against the rule of capital. “All sorts of
theories like ‘there is no alternative’ to imperialist globalisation
are propagated. Countering them, our response is ‘socialism is the
alternative’.”
The declaration further pointed out that it was the experience of the
working class that when it mobilised its strength it could be
successful in protecting its rights. Latin America, the current
theatre of popular mobilisation and working-class actions, has shown
how rights can be protected and won through struggle. The declaration
also pointed out that though the capitalist system was inherently
crisis ridden, it did not collapse automatically. It also stressed
that social democracy continued to spread illusions about the real
character of capitalism, advancing slogans such as “humanisation of
capitalism”, “regulation” and “global governance”.
“These in fact support the strategy of capital by denying class
struggle and buttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No
amount of reform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism.
Capitalism has to be overthrown. This requires the intensification of
ideological and political working-class-led popular struggles.”
A number of delegates to the conference were of the view that the
Delhi meeting and the declaration would give a fillip to Communist
parties and their movements in different countries and strengthen the
struggle against capitalist and imperialist forces. According to Jose
Reinaldo Carvalho of the Brazilian Communist Party, the message of the
Delhi Declaration was a reaffirmation of what many countries in Latin
America had been stating politically over the past decade. And that
message, in Carvalho’s words: “The struggle for socialism, under the
terms of our time, taking into account the lessons learnt from the
previous historical period, is coming back to the agenda not as a
vague ideal but as a concrete possibility.”
Volume 26 - Issue 25 :: Dec. 05-18, 2009
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://frontlineonnet.com/fl2625/stories/20091218262512400.htm
Sid Harth
‘Socialism is our only option’
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
Interview with Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves, deputy head, Department
of International Relations, central committee of the Communist Party
of Cuba.
SANDEEP SAXENA
OSCAR CORDOVES: "FOR Cuba, socialism means independence and
sovereignty."
FOR Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves, deputy head of the Department of
International Relations, central committee of the Communist Party of
Cuba, the trip to India to attend the 11th International Meeting of
the Communist and Workers’ Parties turned out to be important in more
ways than one. This was his first visit to India, and Cordoves also
addressed the concluding session of the meeting on November 22 and
received a standing ovation as a representative of one of the
countries that had sustained for almost five decades the onslaught of
economic blockades imposed by the United States.
One of the demands in the press communique issued at the meeting was
to intensify solidarity with the struggle for the release of the Cuban
Five, who have been in a U.S. prison since 1998. Their crime was that
they had been sent by Cuba to monitor the activities of violent exile
groups in Miami, Florida. Excerpts from an interview Cordoves gave
Frontline.
What is the significance of the 11th international meeting in general
as well as in the context of Cuba?
This meeting is significant in that it is one way by which Communist
parties and workers’ parties the world over get to meet, exchange
opinions and have a vision of communism as well as debate on how the
world sees communism. We are meeting for the first time in Asia, and
Asia is the future economy of the world.
In Asia, we’ve had the experience of some countries that had and still
have communist traditions like China, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia. The
Communist parties have been strong and at different times influenced
world opinion. This kind of a meeting is also important as it is
important to have a unity of ideas, after which we can mobilise
people. But it is very important to have unity of ideas; then we can
take measures.
Normally, when there is an economic crisis, the effect is more on the
poor and working class. The possibility of working amongst these
groups is very strong for Communist and Left parties. I can only
imagine the number of arguments that communists can give people in
this moment of crisis. It [the international capitalist crisis] is a
good moment for the communists and the Left parties.
What are the specific challenges that Cuba faces at this juncture
given its long history of resisting U.S. imperialism?
We have a big challenge in how to ensure the survival of socialism in
these new conditions. For Cuba, socialism means independence and
sovereignty. Independence and sovereignty can only be guaranteed under
socialism. The question is, how can we develop our mode of socialism
with the new generation of Cubans? There is one section that made the
[Cuban] Revolution, [then there is] the section that was born after
that.
The challenge is to ensure that the young generation maintains our
history and carries forward the revolutionary spirit of socialism. How
can we survive when America decides to continue with the blockades?
Seventy per cent of Cubans were born in a period of blockade. Then
there is the constant contact with America. There are those who are
friendly to Cuba, but they want to ideologically infiltrate the
system. That is something we cannot accept.
Do you think that with the change of guard in the U.S. government,
there has been a perceptible shift in U.S.-Cuba relations?
The new government headed by Barack Obama is better than the one led
by George Bush. Obama is an intelligent man, a big difference from
Bush. He was preparing for the job, that of changing the perception of
the world about the U.S. But Obama, too, is a man of the system. He is
a man with different human feelings. He wants to kill us in a better
way. One can talk to him; [he is] not so aggressive. His rhetoric is
different but he doesn’t want to do anything. That is the way we see
the American administration.
We told him we would like to negotiate on equal terms. We are
optimistic. He has been in office for more than 100 days but is not
putting any new effort on the Cuban question or any other question.
Even on Palestine, he has done a U-turn. Initially, he said that
Israelis should stop settlements on Palestine territory but now he
says that it should not be a precondition for talks.
What about Latin America? The Delhi Declaration describes it as the
current theatre of popular mobilisation and working-class actions. Do
you think the winds of change blowing there are in favour of
socialism?
Socialism in Latin America is a long-term objective. None of the
progressive Left-led governments are actually changing the system,
including Venezuela. The character of the army remains unchanged.
America will see to it that no country in Latin America takes to
socialism. But socialism cannot just be made just by declaring it. One
has to work towards it. We are a poor country; socialism is our only
option. Political conscience cannot be developed by giving everybody a
car or a television. It has to be done in another way, by giving free
health care and education to all.
Volume 26 - Issue 25 :: Dec. 05-18, 2009
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://frontlineonnet.com/fl2625/stories/20091218262512600.htm
chhotemianinshallah
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Jan. 12:
The Union home ministry has received substantive inputs that many
Maoist leaders, including military commander Ganapathi, have slipped
out of their jungle hideouts and entered urban pockets.
They have reportedly sought shelter in traditionally non-Naxalite
states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and in pockets of western and
coastal Maharashtra.
This, sources claimed, was happening essentially on account of the
“build-up of security heat” on Naxalite concentrations in south Bastar
and the “fear of joint operations” across most-affected states.
The information on Naxalite bosses scattering away is based mainly on
recent telephone intercepts which reveal that most of them are
frequently changing locations, sometimes twice or three times during
the course of a day.
Asked why the security forces hadn’t apprehended any senior Naxalite
leader since Kobad Ghandy if precise information on their movement
existed, a source said: “There is mostly a time lag in the receipt and
analysis of such intercepts. Most often by the time you have pinned
down a location, the person has moved. Not only to another place but
also to a new mobile phone.”
Joint operations against the Maoists -- the effort has got off the
ground only in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra — came up for review at a
meeting of police chiefs of all states concerned and senior
Intelligence officials with the Union home secretary today.
The general sense was that some progress has been made in the
offensive that has been slow to start.
Equally, mention was made of the need to kickstart anti-Naxalite
operations in laggard states like Orissa, Jharkhand and even Bengal.
Orissa has consistently complained of lacking enough experienced boots
on the ground to launch an ambitious offensive. Jharkhand was
embroiled in elections. Bengal and the Centre have been having a
standing row on strategies to beat away the Maoists.
But the emphasis of today’s meeting, the sources said, was on
development efforts in Maoist strongholds.Officials from the Planning
Commision and ministries like transport and telecommunications were
also present.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100113/jsp/nation/story_11977959.jsp
chhotemianinshallah
Destroyer of West Bengal
Kanchan Gupta
Had it been Jyoti Banerjee lying unattended in a filthy general ward
of SSKM Hospital in Kolkata and not Jyoti Basu in the state-of-the-art
ICCU of AMRI Hospital, among the swankiest and most expensive super-
speciality healthcare facilities in West Bengal, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh would not have bothered to arrange for a video-
conference for top doctors at AIIMS to compare notes with those
attending on the former Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Jyoti Banerjee, like most of us, spent his working life paying taxes
to the Government. Jyoti Basu spent the better part of his life living
off tax-payers’ money — the conscience of the veteran Marxist was
never pricked by the fact that he appropriated for himself a lifestyle
shunned by his comrades and denied to the people of a State whose fate
he presided over for a quarter century. Kalachand Roy laid what we
know today as Odisha to waste in the 16th century; Jyoti Basu was the
20th century’s Kala Pahad who led West Bengal from despair to
darkness, literally and metaphorically.
Uncharitable as it may sound, but there really is no reason to nurse
fond memories of Jyoti Basu. In fact, there are no fond memories to
recall of those days when hopelessness permeated the present and the
future appeared bleak. Entire generations of educated middle-class
Bengalis were forced to seek refuge in other States or migrate to
America as Jyoti Basu worked overtime to first destroy West Bengal’s
economy, chase out Bengali talent and then hand over a disinherited
State to Burrabazar traders and wholesale merchants who overnight
became ‘industrialists’ with a passion for asset-stripping and
investing their ‘profits’ elsewhere. A State that was earlier referred
to as ‘Sheffield of the East’ was rendered by Jyoti Basu into a vast
stretch of wasteland; the Oxford English Dictionary would have been
poorer by a word had he not made ‘gherao’ into an officially-
sanctioned instrument of coercion; ‘load-shedding’ would have never
entered into our popular lexicon had he not made it a part of daily
life in West Bengal though he ensured Hindustan Park, where he stayed,
was spared power cuts. It would have been churlish to grudge him the
good life had he not exerted to deny it to others, except of course
his son Chandan Basu who was last in the news for cheating on taxes
that should have been paid on his imported fancy car.
Let it be said, and said bluntly, that Jyoti Basu’s record in office,
first as Deputy Chief Minister in two successive United Front
Governments beginning 1967 (for all practical purposes he was the de
facto Chief Minister with a hapless Ajoy Mukherjee reduced to
indulging in Gandhigiri to make his presence felt) and later as Chief
Minister for nearly 25 years at the head of the Left Front Government
which has been in power for 32 years now, the “longest elected
Communist Government” as party commissars untiringly point out to the
naïve and the novitiate, is a terrible tale of calculated destruction
of West Bengal in the name of ideology. It’s easy to criticise the CPI
(M) for politicising the police force and converting it into a goons
brigade, but it was Jyoti Basu who initiated the process. It was he
who instructed them, as Deputy Chief Minister during the disastrous UF
regime, to play the role of foot soldiers of the CPI(M), first by not
acting against party cadre on the rampage, and then by playing an
unabashedly partisan role in industrial and agrarian disputes.
The fulsome praise that is heaped on Jyoti Basu today — he is
variously described by party loyalists and those enamoured of
bhadralok Marxists as a ‘humane administrator’ and ‘farsighted leader’
— is entirely misleading if not undeserving. Within the first seven
months of the United Front coming to power, 43,947 workers were laid
off and thousands more rendered jobless as factories were shut down
following gheraos and strikes instigated and endorsed by him. The
flight of capital in those initial days of emergent Marxist power
amounted to Rs 2,500 million. In 1967, there were 438 ‘industrial
disputes’ involving 165,000 workers and resulting in the loss of five
million man hours. By 1969, there were 710 ‘industrial disputes’
involving 645,000 workers and a loss of 8.5 million man hours. That
was a taste of things to come in the following decades. By the time
Jyoti Basu demitted office, West Bengal had nothing to boast of except
closed mills and shuttered factories; every institution and agency of
the State had been subverted under his tutelage; and, the civil
administration had been converted into an extension counter of the CPI
(M) with babus happy to be used as doormats.
After every outrage, every criminal misdeed committed by Marxist goons
or the police while he was Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu would crudely
respond with a brusque “Emon to hoyei thaakey” (or, as Donald Rumsfeld
would famously say, “Stuff happens!”). He did not brook any criticism
of the Marich Jhapi massacre by his police in 1979 when refugees from
erstwhile East Pakistan were shot dead in cold blood. Till date,
nobody knows for sure how many died in that slaughter for Jyoti Basu
never allowed an independent inquiry. Neither did the man whose heart
bled so profusely for the lost souls of Nandigram hesitate to justify
the butchery of April 30, 1982 when 16 monks and a nun of the Ananda
Marg order were set ablaze in south Kolkata by a mob of Marxist thugs.
The man who led that murderous lot was known for his proximity to
Jyoti Basu, a fact that the CPI(M) would now hasten to deny. Nor did
Jyoti Basu wince when the police shot dead 13 Congress activists a
short distance from Writers’ Building on July 21, 1993; he later
justified the police action, saying it was necessary to enforce the
writ of the state. Yet, he wouldn’t allow the police to act every time
Muslims ran riot, most infamously after Mohammedan Sporting Club lost
a football match.
Did Jyoti Basu, who never smiled in public lest he was accused of
displaying human emotions, ever spare a thought for those who suffered
terribly during his rule? Was he sensitive to the plight of those who
were robbed of their lives, limbs and dignity by the lumpen
proletariat which kept him in power? Did his heart cry out when women
health workers were gang-raped and then two of them murdered by his
party cadre on May 17, 1990 at Bantala on the eastern margins of
Kolkata? Or when office-bearers of the Kolkata Police Association, set
up under his patronage, raped Nehar Banu, a poor pavement dweller, at
Phulbagan police station in 1992? “Emon to hoyei thaakey,” the revered
Marxist would say, and then go on to slyly insinuate that the victims
deserved what they got.
As a Bengali, I grieve for the wasted decades but for which West
Bengal, with its huge pool of talent, could have led India from the
front. I feel nothing for Jyoti Basu.
-- Follow the writer on: http://twitter.com/KanchanGupta. Blog on this
and other issues at http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com. Write to him at
kancha...@rocketmail.com
COMMENTS BOARD ::
A tribute to Mr. Basu
By A.N. on 1/12/2010 9:59:49 PM
I spent most of my Kolkata life under the leadership of chief minister
Mr. Basu. I am also fortunate to have a student life under his
leadership (80’s and early 90’s). Being a student of a Govt run school
I witnessed the (historical) transformation of school to a rock solid
party office. I saw how CPIM student union politely entered into all
schools and how softly they invited kids to become a member of the
revolution.
To The Moderators of this Blog
By De on 1/12/2010 3:38:31 PM
Sir, Kindly allow us to give point wise reply to the column of
Respected Mr. Kanchan Gupta, otherwise , we the readers will be
misled. Kindly do not edit the post as Mr. Gupta's post is very much
away from the truth. I shall give every evidence to my post, which Mr.
Gupta did not give.
The view from "Uttarapath"
By Probashi Europe-born Bengali on 1/12/2010 12:34:29 AM
Yes, the commies are an insufferable lot, who have infested India's
academic institutions. The Bengali commies are the worst of the lot,
combining Bhadralok slothfulness with their obsolete stalinisms. But
unfortunately, the rest of the political spectrum is almost as
nauseating. The Congress and Trinamool Bengalis are equally spineless.
Where is the Syama Prasad Mookherjea of today? Where are the Ram
Mohuns, Dwarkanaths and Subhash Chandras ?
The Creator of WB - Jyoti Basu
By DE on 1/11/2010 7:36:08 PM
Sir, I don't know from where you have derived the figures of lock out
and clousers. But for your kind information, most of the closures were
affected due to :-
1) Lack of capacity of the management to run the same.
2) Innovation of new technology and unable to update themselves.
3) Misappropriation of Loan received from the banks. etc.
Now , what we have gained after 1977:-
1) Security of people, which is still lacking in other states.
2) Restoration of colapsed education
Thank you Mr. Gupta
By S B on 1/11/2010 4:30:07 PM
I was not yet born when this man destroyed West Bengal single
handedly.
But I will remember this stinging comment that my father once made:
"If this man were to become Prime Minister, India would have been
attacked and captured in no time (by Pak-China)."
How close we were to disaster !
This man's attrocities need to be publicized umpteen number of times.
Let's not be in a "hurry" to forget him. His "glories" need to sung
again and again.
Destroyer of West Bengal.
By I. Sengupta on 1/11/2010 2:06:48 PM
Thank You Mr.Kanchan Gupta for writing the truth. Not only millions of
Bengalis had to leave Bengal just to earn a living, thouands of youths
have left Bengal to other states for higher studies and lakhs are
still thronging cities like Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai for good quality
medical facilities. A big Thanks to Jyoti Basu for making all these
happen over his reign last more than 2 decades. We Bengalis who live
outside Bengal feel all the difference more by seeing how other states
have gone ahead.
Thank You
By joyjit on 1/11/2010 9:50:10 AM
Wish more people had the courage to speak the truth and stand up for
millions of bengalis who lost their life, livelihood and/or the spinal
chord due to this dictator. As the common sentiment goes to resurrect
people on their death or deathbed, truth needs to be told and the the
failures that caused untold misery which will have a ripple effect on
years to come needs to be brought to light. Thank you for doing that.
Pray for speedy death
By Souvik on 1/11/2010 8:58:02 AM
Let's all pray for his speedy death!!!
Crimes & sins of Jyoti Basu
By Dipak Kumar Mallick on 1/11/2010 1:41:20 AM
This is the best written article I have read about Jyoti Basu. He &
his party to quote from Gita ' I am death the destroyer of the world.'
Even the God is too afraid to take him up in case he creates trouble
in heaven !!
Jyoti Basu's One Leg In The Grave.
By Hriday on 1/11/2010 12:00:52 AM
Mr Kanchan Gupta, as ever, has exposed the big humbug-Jyoti Basu.He
has lived like a Lord in poverty stricken Bengal.We still have the
Commies in power, who continue to destroy Bengal.The Bengalis must
boot the Marxist Govt. out if they want to save their state from total
destruction.
Do not forget the systemetic eradication of the education system
By Subrata on 1/10/2010 10:34:23 PM
This is one thing they did not waste any time to implement. They
removed English from the lower grades, saying English is bad at
elementary level. But his own grand daughter was admitted to English-
medium school at kindergarten level. All the losses stated in the
article are big, but recoverable, but the education system that has
been corrupted meticulously, will take another renaissance to revive.
Till then the system will keep producing more comrades, and most
dangerously, the next generation
Debauch Jyoti Basu
By Amit Bhadhuri,Ex-Officer,CISF on 1/10/2010 9:48:41 PM
What is he waiting for. The sooner this enemy of the nation(allowing
multi- millions illegal Bangadehi Muhamedans to come and settle in
India and single-handedly destroying Bengal while leading a real
luxirious debauchery life style ) goes, the better as it will save a
lot of tax payers money.
Destroyer..? Harbinger for "Globalization of Bengalis"...!
By Bhut Nath on 1/10/2010 8:48:09 PM
"When we (Bihar) can get Lalu out,... why can't you get him ot his
party out of West Bengal..?" that's what bothers me. His is a
regimental party and what they have done over the years is to
categorically destroy health, law and order, and education in Bengal.
However, they failure lies in the fact that they have not been able to
destroy it completely, as they would have wanted to.
WASTE BENGAL
By LAK on 1/10/2010 6:37:37 PM
NICE ARTICLE OF FACTS ABD FIGURES. TANK U SIR
Jyoti Basu - biggest bane of West Bengal
By Suresh on 1/10/2010 6:26:53 PM
Thank you for the article Mr Gupta. I agree with you on how the
marxists under Jyoti Basu systematically destroyed West Bengal and
drove talent away from the State. I lived there for 10 years and saw
its decline. I hail from a different state and was amazed to see so
much talent and warmth in West Bengal. I fell in love with the people.
Situation turned from bad to worse. I had to migrate. Not a day passes
when I wish that West Bengal never experienced JB and his cronies.
taste of his own medicine
By S R on 1/10/2010 6:09:28 PM
I agree wholeheartedly. Suggest he be shifted to NRS general ward and
left to the mercies of the commie infested, non functioning WB system
that the people of the state have to endure. May be the docs and the
sweepers will go on strike. I am among those who have had to flee the
state thanks to lack of opportunities and employment.
Jyoti Basu's contribution
By Dr. Om Prakash Gupt on 1/10/2010 3:47:38 PM
Communists in West Bengal have always been hypocrites-one and all.
Living elite life styles talking of economic equality, they thrive on
regionalism. This man who missed the chance of being Prime Minister,
would have carried India to a disaster.
wolf in sheep's cothing?
By A.Sathyamurthy on 1/10/2010 3:21:30 PM
I had been under the impression that JB was a simple man leading
almost a Gandhian life, washing his clothes himself etc etc. Thanks
for the article because only now have I understood what JB has been
like!
SLAVES OF CHINA
By N.ASTI on 1/10/2010 3:08:23 PM
The article reveals completely Jyoti Basu in his true colours. People
more loyal to China compared to their own Nation can deliver only
nuisance to the country. Congress has no harm to sit with a party more
loyal to China/ Russia compared to India, since "secularism means Anti-
Hindu attitude and actions" is common to Congress and left,
consideration of Loyalty to nation, a subsidiary one. For Jyoti Basu,
Manmohan Singh may perhaps try (if access is there) to use his
influence with almighty.
Jyoti Basu
By sid chowdhury on 1/10/2010 2:11:53 PM
Thanks Mr Gupta for writing about Mr. Basu. I do not know how he
managed to stay in Indira Bhawan after he left office as a chief
minister. He made jokes when Indira Gandhi came and stayed time to
time when she was in Waste Bengal. Yet, he lived there. People of
Waste Bengal spent millions of rupees for a skum bag like Mr. Basu. He
is the pioneer who took every effort to make West Bengal to Waste
Bengal. He did his job well. People of Bengal have no sense of smell.
Down with politicians
By Vivek Banerjee on 1/10/2010 2:04:59 PM
I entirely endorse your views but would like to add that callous power-
drunk politicians and politician-criminal-bureaucrat nexus is
responsible for most of the ills plaguing our nation.
DWINDLING CPM'S TYRANNY
By ANOOPAM MODAK on 1/10/2010 1:36:55 PM
The author has highlighted all the causes that led to downfall of the
once India's pride. Ever since Dr. Bidhan Roy let off the reigns of
ruling Bengal, the vaccum was filled up by the notorious communists of
Bengal. The communist regime in West Bengal saw the eradication of the
Bengali intelligentsia. Jyoti Basu ought to be credited with wiping
out an entire generation of potential Bengal youths during the misrule
of the CPM.
how come
By anaonymous on 1/10/2010 1:20:59 PM
if he i ssuch an idiot how come he ruled so many years. doesn't W.B
have elections
The Despot
By anonymous on 1/10/2010 12:12:48 PM
The despot brainwashed people of Kolkata into literally believing
DumDum airport & Alipore Zoo were the (sic) " greatest in the entire
world "!
The Despot
By anonymous on 1/10/2010 12:08:50 PM
Absolutely incisive ! Thank God , Kanchan Gupta does not airbrush with
"howeverr..having said thattt.." as is the wont of most Indians. Add
to that the harmless wolves put to death by his coomrades for
disturbing the tyrant's sleep.
Oh, awesome!!! There is somebody who can speak truth
By Sid on 1/10/2010 11:52:46 AM
Kanchan-da,
Thank you!!! Thank you for speaking the truth. This man, excuse me if
I call him a man because humanity at this rate of fall would soon
resemble his type, is the sole reason that me and countless Bengalis
like me stay in a land that is not ours. The day this man takes his
last breath, I would not be ashamed to say "good riddance".
You forgot to write about the "historical mistake". God bless those
politicians who denied him the opportunity to run India into ground.
an eye opener!!
By Tushar on 1/10/2010 11:42:41 AM
An eye opener for me at least. Till now I knew that West Bengal was
laid waste by CPM economically and idelogically. But the kind of
atrocities he did never came out. Thanks Kanchan Gupta for the same
I feel nothing for Jyoti Basu
By Krishen Kak on 1/10/2010 11:25:21 AM
And this man almost became prime minister!
Destroyer
By S on 1/10/2010 10:17:36 AM
Great, courageous and factual write-up. But will it change the mindset
of any of the naive, sycophants and opportunists who are everywhere in
Bengal and Delhi now?
Dstroyer of West Bengal
By Sumanta Ghosh, New Orleans. USA on 1/10/2010 7:22:56 AM
The author's view is very much realistic. Those who have witnessed the
CPM rule of West Bengal from youth age to middle age, will certainly
agree with the author's view one hundred per cent.
Jyoti Basu
By Ram on 1/10/2010 5:03:30 AM
It is an excellent article informing readers about the true character
of Mr. Jyoti Basu. Kanchan Gupta should have also mentioned about the
systematic destruction of excellence in the fields of Medicine and
Surgery during his regime. His time can only be remembered as a dark
era for West Bengal.
Communists and West Bengal
By VANTHIA THEVAN on 1/10/2010 4:50:55 AM
This article is a long overdue one. I am surprised that West Bengal
with supposedly well educated people allowed this cancer called
communism to grow in its midst. After forty years of suffering and
down right slide into abject poverty, they still believe in this curse
on humanity called communism.
Destroyer of West Bengal
By Srini Balan on 1/10/2010 2:07:27 AM
Dear Mr. Kanchan Gupta
Despite the fact I abhor your pro-BJP,VHP,BAJRANG DAL, HINDUTVA
politics, I am absolutely delighted by this article.
There is not one word or even a syallable that is wrong or out of
place.
A great and a wonderful people reduced to such pathetic state and
their state itself reduced to penury. But the pity is --neither Mamata
nor the Congress--- is any better.
More the pity!
cannot disagree
By rj on 1/10/2010 2:00:42 AM
As some one who has grown up during His regime I totally agree with
the writer. Bengal has been pushed to grave under him - industrially,
socially and politically. The khaki (white for KP) was color to fear
instead of help. But more than anything its the damage of the mindset
of generation of his era is worrisome. Youth has no option of job and
forced to either leave bengal or join the hooliganism.
Destroyer of West Bengal
By Sunil Kumar Pal on 1/10/2010 1:58:52 AM
I share what Mr kanchan Gupta has written about Mr Jyoti Basu. However
I would like to point out what Mr Gupta left out. Mr Basu being a
barrister from London perverted the course of justice in most of the
murder cases by withdrawing the criminal cases against those who
showed loyatly to CPIM. For example hideous murder case of Sain family
in Burdwan was withdrawn. Present CPIM leaders like Nirupam Sen ,
Benoy Konar and others were accused of the case.
Excellent
By Devil's Advocate on 1/10/2010 1:41:41 AM
Sir
You are really great ...excellent ...I am one of those unfortunate who
has suffered a lot due to his inefficiency.
Thank you for such a piece of writing ...
Thanks & regards
Devil's Advocate
Destroyer of West Bengal
By Anindya Das on 1/10/2010 1:26:49 AM
There is a saying, everyman becomes a nice man thirty years after
death..Jyoti Basu might not have passed away till now, but the same
"appears" to hold for him. Whatever attrocities dis farsighted Marxist
has commited people "seem" to have forgotten. But my friend as I said
it "seems"and "appears". The actual fact is people are waiting for a
Goverment holiday and a happy one at that. I would like to thank Mr
Gupta for speaking the heart and more importantly the truth.
I feel Nothing for Jyoti Basu
By Krishan on 1/10/2010 1:14:32 AM
Bravo! Kanchan Gupta, Bravo! I feel nothing for Jyoti Basu, except
utter contempt. Does Manmohan Singh have a conscience?
Destroyer
By Krishnendu Chaudhuri on 1/10/2010 1:12:26 AM
This article is simply a nuisance.
Very true indeed....
By Arnab on 1/10/2010 1:09:50 AM
emon to hotei thakey... proletariat are suppose to suffer...as per Mr.
Basu's ideology. Erokhom eii hoi...Irony off course. But don't blame
him alone, was the Govt. in the center sleeping or was it blind when
all those happned??? All are party to the crime
Destroyer of West Bengal
By Ashok Parakh on 1/10/2010 12:45:09 AM
When he finaly departs, Mother India will take a great sigh of relief.
A traitor who allowed half the Bangaladesh population into India will
be missed by very few when he finaly goes. I completely endorse
Kanchan Gupta's views.
Basu's Bengal
By Vasu on 1/10/2010 12:38:37 AM
I totally agree with you. I have lived for about 30 years in WB and
have seen how Basu and his Commie goons destroyed Bengal. I went to BE
College and saw first hand the Commie politics on campus (Gherao the
principal, lead michils, dharnas etc..). Roads deteriorated, the Metro
project dug up everything and took decades to complete, business fled.
I mean he literally dug bug the entire place and left it to rot. I
used to see him leave his home in Hindustan park everyday as I crossed
his driveway
Amen to that ... !!
By Alady Krishnaswamy on 1/10/2010 12:38:00 AM
Amen to that ... !!
http://www.dailypioneer.com/228148/Destroyer-of-West-Bengal.html
bademiyansubhanallah
Arati R Jerath
Sunday, January 10, 2010 1:17 IST
As CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu’s life slowly ebbs, his close friends
are consoling themselves with heartfelt gratitude that he won’t be
around to see the widely expected eclipse of his party in next year’s
Assembly polls in West Bengal.
They must be equally thankful that lying in the ICU on a ventilator,
he’s also blissfully unaware of the messy politics fracturing his
unhappy party. How quickly the CPI(M)’s aura of invincibility has
vanished as it sinks into factionalism and internal bickerings in its
hour of decline. Some of the ugliness boiled over during Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s flying visit to Kolkata last week to call on
the ailing Marxist leader.
The West Bengal unit of the party shut out general secretary Prakash
Karat and wife Brinda and instead appointed an exclusive reception
committee of state leaders to greet the PM. The only non-Bengali to be
included was Sitaram Yechury who seems to have acquired the status of
an honorary Bong because of his proximity to the Bengal club. (He even
speaks the language although he hails from Andhra Pradesh.)
To add insult to injury, the WB leadership drafted in former Lok Sabha
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee although he was expelled in 2008 for so-
called anti-party activities. Yechury is not an early morning person
but that day, he rose at the crack of dawn to catch the first flight
to be at hand to receive the PM. Karat, an early riser who prefers
morning flights, flew in later in the day to arrive only after the PM
had left.
Brinda was understandably upset by her exclusion. Not only is she a
Bengali by birth, she is also a member of Rajya Sabha from the state.
In addition, she is a Politburo member. But the West Bengal leadership
kept her out of the loop. To her chagrin, she found out that she was
not among the chosen ones only on the morning the PM was due to
arrive.
The SPG came to the hospital and informed all those present that they
would have to leave before the VVIP visit. Only members of the
reception committee were permitted to stay. Brinda got up and left
immediately without saying a word to anyone. But her annoyance was
visible to all. The episode has left a bad taste.
The fading out of a towering personality like Jyoti Basu is an
opportunity for the divided party to come together in grief and
sorrow. Instead, it’s all messed up by petty politics and personality
clashes. Even the decision to keep Basu going with a ventilator seems
to be driven by politics with the CPI(M) desperately trying to revive
its flagging fortunes through a sympathy wave. Prolong the agony to
squeeze every last tear.
TAILPIECE
This year’s holiday calendar may force Pranab Mukherjee to present the
budget for 2010-11 on February 26, two days earlier than usual. The
conventional budget date, February 28, falls on a Sunday. February 27
will most probably be declared Prophet Mohammed’s birthday. And March
1 is Holi.
Mukherjee has little choice but to advance his preparations and be
ready for his big day by February 26. Meanwhile, North Block is
gearing up to drop the iron curtain from February 1. From that date
till the budget is announced, no visitors will be permitted to enter
the finance ministry, especially nosy journalists.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/column_a-not-so-lal-salaam-for-jyoti-basu_1332944
bademiyansubhanallah
PTI Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:37 IST
Banka: Four Maoists were arrested and as many bunkers demolished
during an encounter between the rebels and police in a forest under
Belhar police station in Bihar's Banka district, police said today.
More than fifty rounds of bullets had been exchanged during the
encounter that ensued after the outlaws had fired at a police patrol
late last night. Nobody, however, was injured.
Police captured four Maoists after the encounter, and dismantled their
four bunkers in the forest.
A combing operation has been launched in the area to arrest the
ultras.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_four-maoists-held-bunkers-demolished-in-bihar_1334605
chhotemianinshallah
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Socialists in Indian Politics
There was in interesting report in the Telegraph the other day.
( http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100109/jsp/frontpage/story_11962936.jsp)
It repays reading. It mentions that George Fernandes (George the
socialist turned Hindu fundamentalist) who is today gaga, is now being
hounded by his wife ( with whom he has had no relations for three
decades) and his mistress for those past three decades Jaiya Jaitely
( she of the Tehelka bribery fame) for his property. For a longtime
socialist like George what could this property be? Perhaps a few
hundred bucks in the bank one would think. It turns out that our man
George owns property in his native Hubli that is worth Rs 7 crores and
in addition there is the flat in Hauz Khas in Delhi which is probably
worth as much.
This is the man who preached socialism to us all through the sixties
and seventies. As the Union Minister for Industry, he drove IBM and
Coke out of India to prove his socialist credentials. He achieved fame
of another sort when he gave a rousing oration in parliament in
support of the Morarji Desai government and then voted against it,
deciding the defect the same day, no doubt for sound ideological
reasons. Later our friend George changed tack somewhat. Having toppled
the Morarji Desai government on the grounds of the dual membership of
Jana Sangh members (read the present BJP), he then sidled up to them
for a last crack at power. The strident supporter of Indian interests
and honour also did not object to being strip searched in an American
airport as a minister. If anyone was responsible for the unexpected
defeat of the BJP led NDA in 2004, he must be the chief. I have
noticed that the Indian electorate might tolerate dynastic rule,
corruption and casteisim, but draws the line at hypocrisy. L K Advani
found this out to his cost last year.
He created news again last year during the last Lok Sabha elections
when, barely able to totter out of his bed, he insisted on fighting
the Muzzafarnagar seat in Bihar against his party’s nominee and got a
few hundred votes, probably by voters who wanted to spoil the ballot.
And now he lies in his cot, wallowing in his own waste while his
mistress and family fight over the spoils that he had gathered during
his unremitting toil for the poor people of India.
Another old man lies in a hospital in Calcutta, probably playing out
the last days of his life. I am already shuddering to imagine the
reams of nonsense that will be written about his greatness when he
does finally die. This other great communist lived off the fat of the
land for more than three decades and systematically denuded Bengal of
all that had ever made it great. The industrial, educational and
health wastelands of Bengal are his legacy and it is perhaps fitting
that he should die in the hands of the incompetents who his party
nurtured over the decades. His high voltage medical team is too scared
to do even a tracheostomy on the great man.
Whatever may be said of the present political dispensation, they are
at least a little less hypocritical. And hypocrisy is paid back by the
electorate immediately. L K Advani knows this. And I strongly suspect
that Modi’s continued electoral success owes a lot to his refreshing
candour, even when he is advocating genocide. I tired of these
sanctimonious asses long ago. I only await the retirement of the last
of them all: my best pal Prakash (Fathead) Karat.
http://akdcts.blogspot.com/2010/01/socialists-in-indian-politics.html
chhotemianinshallah
Thu, Jan 14 07:38 PM
Kolkata, Jan 14 (IANS) Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu's health
condition further deteriorated Thursday and he has been put on
dialysis, hospital authorities said.
'Basu's condition is very critical. He is still on ventilator support.
The oxygen requirement for his body has also increased. He has been
put on dialysis.
'The heart and renal functioning have further worsened today
(Thursday). His blood pressure is now being maintained through
medicine,' said a medical bulletin released this evening by the
hospital authorities. The report said the dialysis would continue for
next four hours.
The former West Bengal chief minister was hospitalised Jan 1 after a
pneumonia attack. 'The expert team is constantly monitoring the ailing
95-year-old leader. The AMRI medical board will again meet tomorrow
(Friday) at 9.30 a.m. to review his health condition,' it pointed out.
Earlier, AMRI medical superintendent Debashis Sharma said Basu's urine
output had come down in the morning.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader was admitted to
the Salt Lake hospital near his residence Indira Bhavan Jan 1 after a
pneumonia attack. He was shifted to the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit
(ICCU) the next day and put on ventilator support Jan 6 following
acute respiratory problems.
Born in 1914 in Kolkata, Basu became chief minister of West Bengal in
June 1977. He stepped down voluntarily on health grounds in November
2000.
Indo Asian News Service
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100114/818/tnl-jyoti-basu-s-condition-very-critical.html
Sid Harth
Asia Report N°184
14 January 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Failure to address the systematic crimes committed during Nepal’s ten-
year civil war is threatening the peace process. There has been not a
single prosecution in civilian courts for any abuses. The cultures of
impunity that enabled the crimes in the first place have remained
intact, further increasing public distrust and incentives to resort to
violence. The immediate priorities should be prosecutions of the most
serious crimes, investigation of disappearances and action to vet
state and Maoist security force members.
There are tensions between the pursuit of justice and the pursuit of
peace. An absolutist approach to accountability for past abuses is
impossible in practice and could obstruct the compromises needed to
bring formerly warring parties together to forge a stable political
settlement. But tackling impunity and improving accountability has a
direct and acute relevance to managing Nepal’s fractious transition.
Unaccountable and heavy-handed security measures by a state with weak
legitimacy have escalated conflict before and threaten to do so
again.
Multiple grievances are not being effectively channelled through the
constitutional process, and dealing with them is fraught with risk as
long as political violence remains a viable tool. Yet moving from a
state of impunity to one of accountability will be a painful
transition for many individuals in the security forces and political
parties. Avoiding, or deferring, this discomfort may appear tempting
but is counterproductive. Longstanding cycles of abuse have undermined
prospects for improved public security and peaceful political debate.
Both sides carried out repeated and systematic violations of the laws
of war during the conflict, which ended with the November 2006
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). State security forces accountable
primarily to the interests of party leaders or the palace felt
unconstrained by legal requirements. They were responsible for
hundreds of disappearances and unlawful killings, rampant torture and
other abuses of the civilian population. Of the more than 13,000
people killed during the war, the vast majority died at the hands of
the state. The Maoists, in challenging a state they portrayed as
unjust and illegitimate, sought to characterise violence – including
brutal killings of civilians and political opponents – as an
essential, and justified, plank of political strategy.
At the heart of the peace deal lay a commitment to recognise that both
sides had broken fundamental rules. But neither believes its actions
were wrong. Both insist on judging their own, meting out no real
punishment, and have refused to cooperate with civilian authorities.
Lack of action on justice is not for lack of promises. Commitments to
human rights norms and specific steps such as investigating
disappearances have been central to successive agreements, including
the CPA. Lip service, however, has only become entrenched as a
substitute for action.
Concern for victims has been inconsistent. The most tangible response
has been interim relief payments to families of those who died or were
disappeared. Yet this has been weakened by political manipulation and
the lack of effective oversight of fund distribution. For relatives of
the more than 1,000 still missing, distress, frustration and a sense
of betrayal have grown.
Political parties have shown no interest in dealing with past crimes.
Indeed, they have exploited the lack of accountability to avoid
reining in the unlawful activities of their own activists and to
justify regular interference in the criminal justice system. This has
left a demoralised, ineffective and increasingly desperate police
force to confront growing insecurity and small yet still dangerous
local, regional and ethnic struggles.
But political leaders alone are not to blame. The domestic
constituency for justice is minimal. Despite the pioneering work of
some activists, rights and justice are not rallying calls for the
politically influential middle classes. Citizens are not keen to re-
examine what the state did in the name of their security, and see no
need for national dialogue and catharsis. Many victims were from
disadvantaged communities long marginalised by the state and more
influential social strata. Media and parliamentary attention to
questions of justice is sporadic.
International efforts are no substitute for national will.
Nevertheless, international commitment is to support a peace process
based on fundamental rights. Allowing words to replace substance
undermines such principles. The UN has lost credibility as its core
values have been marginalised during the process. With no systematic
vetting of peacekeeping troops by either the government or the UN,
even high-profile alleged abusers have been deployed in lucrative
posts in UN missions – including, in September 2009, one army major
sought by Nepal’s police and courts for questioning over the torture
and murder of a teenage girl in 2004 inside a Nepali peacekeeping
training centre. Countries providing military assistance, including
the U.S., UK, India and China, have rarely or never restricted
training and opportunities for individuals or units accused of serious
violations.
Clear priorities are required. The first should be prosecution of the
most serious conflict-era cases. Without a credible threat of
prosecution, any commissions of inquiry will not get beyond the
inadequate explanations the army and Maoists have already provided.
The second is to ensure the commissions on disappearances and on truth
and reconciliation specified in the CPA meet basic standards and, more
importantly, are domestically owned and have clear, achievable goals.
Finally, vetting is needed – both domestically and internationally –
to help ensure the stability of any future security forces.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To All Political Actors Party to the Peace and Constitutional
Processes:
1. Act to fulfil the commitments to justice made in the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement, focusing on the manageable and urgent priorities of
establishing a commission on disappearances and investigating and
prosecuting the most serious conflict-era crimes for which there
already is substantial evidence.
2. Forge an all-party consensus and publicly commit to work towards
ending impunity, initially by ending political interference in
criminal proceedings, including the withdrawal of cases by the council
of ministers, and halting illegal activities of party youth wings or
other affiliated groups.
3. Within negotiations over the future of Maoist combatants and state
security forces, most immediately in the work of the special committee
and its technical sub-committee, establish procedures to vet all
potential members of future security forces to exclude human rights
violators.
To the Government of Nepal:
4. Direct and equip the police and attorney general’s office to
pursue investigations and prosecutions of all serious conflict-period
crimes by:
a) giving direct instructions to police to execute outstanding arrest
warrants;
b) setting up special police and prosecutors’ units to investigate and
prosecute war crimes, with senior and experienced staff backed by
sufficient resources and insulated from politically motivated
transfers;
c) shielding courts and judges from pressure and taking firm action
against any individual or institution that obstructs the course of
justice;
d) establishing simple, effective channels for victims and others to
communicate with police and prosecutors; and
e) identifying resource gaps, such as forensic capacity and witness
protection, and drawing up plans to address them, including by
requesting international assistance if appropriate.
5. Refuse, and if already granted revoke, promotions and UN
peacekeeping positions to members of the security forces accused of
grave violations unless and until they have been exonerated in
credible independent investigations; suspend individuals who are the
subject of police investigations or for whom arrest warrants have been
issued.
6. Instruct the Nepalese Army to cooperate fully with investigations,
including by making records of internal investigations and court-
martials and other relevant internal documents available to police and
prosecutors and making individuals available for police interview or
court appearance when formally summoned.
7. Implement existing Supreme Court decisions relating to war crimes,
disappearances and the obligation of police to register complaints and
investigate alleged crimes.
8. Offer official responses to reports and recommendations of the
National Human Rights Commission and the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
To the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist):
9. Respect the authority of the police and civilian courts and
cooperate fully with investigations and prosecutions of crimes
committed during the conflict and ceasefire periods by:
a) making suspects available for questioning or, where warrants have
been issued, arrest;
b) handing over internal investigation reports;
c) sharing any other relevant evidence or records; and
d) cooperating in the establishment and functioning of the
disappearances commission, in particular by full disclosure of all
information relating to disappearances in which Maoist forces are
implicated.
To the International Community, in particular the UN and Donors
Represented in Kathmandu:
10. Build on the emerging common strategy on impunity to focus
attention on practical measures to encourage progress on justice
issues by:
a) introducing visa bans on individuals facing credible, documented
allegations of war crimes;
b) reviewing donor assistance to areas such as interim relief payments
for victims and their families and setting clear benchmarks for
continuing direct financial support;
c) establishing principles for possible future support to Maoist
combatants’ integration and rehabilitation, such as an effective
vetting mechanism and prosecutions of the most serious crimes; and
d) pressing for a government response on OHCHR’s reports and
recommendations, raising the issue at the UN Human Rights Council if
there is no progress.
11. UN member states, the Security Council and the UN system should
urgently work to ensure that peacekeeping contributions conform to
universal human rights principles and are consistent with the UN’s
responsibilities to the peace process in Nepal, by:
a) establishing a comprehensive human rights vetting policy for
peacekeeping missions and ensuring systematic pre-deployment screening
of Nepali peacekeepers;
b) linking levels of peacekeeping contributions and senior
appointments to demonstrable progress on accountability for war crimes
and steps to ensure non-repetition; and
c) preparing enhanced training and support for possible additional
deployments once the CPA provisions on security sector reform,
including integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, are
implemented.
To Providers of Military Assistance and Training, in particular India,
China, the U.S. and UK:
12. Condition all military assistance and training on cooperation
with civilian investigations and prosecutions of war crimes, at a
minimum excluding all security force personnel and units facing
credible allegations of human rights violations from training.
Kathmandu/Brussels, 14 January 2010
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6471&l=1
Sid Harth
STAFF WRITER 14:47 HRS IST
Bhubaneswar, Jan 15 (PTI) A woman claiming to be the wife of a top
ranking Maoist leader was arrested here today, police said.
Acting on a tip-off that the general secretary of Orissa unit of CPI
(Maoist) was hiding at a house in Balianata on the outskirts of the
city, police and anti-naxal Special Operation Group (SOG) conducted a
joint raid and arrested the woman, identified as Saswati alias Mili.
A large number of documents, leaflets, Maoist literature and a laptop
were seized from the woman, who was whisked away to an undisclosed
place immediately after her arrest for interrogation.
During interrogation the woman revealed vital information on Maoist
activities in Orissa and the neighbouring states they added.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/469586_Maoist-woman-member-arrested
bademiyansubhanallah
PTI, 15 January 2010, 09:02pm IST
KOLKATA: The condition of CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu turned "very, very
critical" tonight with multi-organ failure and he was totally
dependent on support systems, an attending doctor said.
"He is very, very critical. Three organs - lung, kidney and the haemo
dynamic system have failed and now his heart and liver function is
also deteriorating and the senorium of the brain is very low," Dr A K
Maity, Basu's personal physician who is also on the medical board of
AMRI Hopsital where he is admitted, told reporters.
To a question how long Basu could survive in this condition, Banerjee
said "I don't know what will happen and when it will happen."
Asked whether tracheostomy would be done on him, Maity replied "Let
him live first. If he survives, then only can it be done."
He said the 95-year-old former chief minister was on full ventilation
and doctors would monitor his condition throughout the night.
Basu's son, Chandan, when asked how his father was, replied "what more
shall I say? Dr Maity has said it all."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
bademiyansubhanallah
PTI, 15 January 2010, 08:15pm IST
RANCHI: Six police personnel and a civilian were killed and one
policeman went missing when Maoists blew up their vehicle in
Jharkhand's Gumla district on Friday. ( Watch Video )
The Maoists ambushed a truck, in which the policemen were on patrol,
by triggering a blast near Gurdari mines when the vehicle was
returning to Bishunpur police station, inspector general of police V D
Desmukh said.
Assistant sub-inspector Shaym Kumar Sinha and the truck driver were
among those killed, he said.
The others included havildars and constables, he said. One policeman
was missing, he said.
chhotemianinshallah
Ravik Bhattacharya
Posted: Jan 16, 2010 at 0148 hrs IST
Jhargram After declaring a crusade against Maoists last week,
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee made a virtual volte face
during Friday’s rally at Jhargram.
Making all possible efforts to woo Naxals, she invited them for talks
on development and even offered to mediate with the Centre. And her
offer was accepted ¿ at least by the People’s Committee Against Police
Atrocities (PCAPA). But much to her chagrin, their choice of mediator
was her estranged parliamentarian Kabir Suman.
“We welcome the call by Mamata, but we want to talk to Trinamool MP
Kabir Suman only. We believe him and think that he is above politics,”
said Dhanapati, PCAPA leader.
Dhanapati’s response came after Banerjee asked them “with folded
hands” to shun violence. “I am ready to touch your feet. Give up arms
and talk about development,” she said at the sparsely-attended rally.
“If you want expansion of railway projects, job opportunities, schools
and hospitals, you are free to hold talks.”
Banerjee’s comments were in stark contrast to what she had said about
a week ago in Kolkata, when she had virtually announced a war on
Maoists.
On Friday, she made it clear that she will do everything for the
development of Jangalmahal.
“I want to build railway tracks till Belpahari and connect the area
with the rest of the state,” she said. “I have plans to run two pairs
of trains between Midnapore and Jhargram. I am considering a proposal
to ensure a stoppage of the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express at
Jhargram. If necessary I can convince the Centre to prepare a special
package for the overall development of Jhargram and Jangalmahal.”
But she made it clear that the ruling CPM are in no way to be involved
— “because its minister Sushanta Ghosh, its leaders Dipak Sarkar,
Tapan Ghosh, Sukur Ali are supplying arms to the Maoists to kill
people”.
The Trinamool chief also asked Maoists why they were targeting her
party workers. “You stay well and let us stay well,” she added.
She also served a seven-day ultimatum on Maoists to consider her
development proposals for Jangalmahal — the failure of which will
force her to hold rallies and meetings in the Maoist-infested
Lalgarh.
This was the first time that a front line political party has been
able to hold a political rally in the area since unrest started there
a year ago.
Still, the PCAPA had declared a diktat, ordering villagers not to
attend the Trinamool rally and held its own parallel rally in
Banstolla near Jhargram, which was attended by around 15,000
villagers.
Most of the 5000-strong crowd at the Trinamool rally had come mostly
from Midnapore town and East Midnapore district — currently a party
stronghold.
Mamata also presented the relatives of some of her party workers who
were killed by the Maoists at her Jhargram rally on Friday. They
included Anushree Kar, wife of slain Trinamool leader Jaladbaran Kar
and Fatima, wife of Mehfuj Ali Khandakar, a Trinamool worker.
chhotemianinshallah
STAFF WRITER 23:40 HRS IST
Raipur, Jan 15 (PTI) Two Naxalites were killed in a police firing in
Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said.
Acting on a tip-off about Naxal activities in Chitagufa area, a joint
team of police, commandos, and special officers left for Ramaram,
Rangaiguda, Korrapad and Polpalli villages, Superintendent of Police,
Dantewada, Amrish Mishra said.
When the team reached Rangaiguda, Naxals opened fire at them to which
the team retaliated, he said.
The outlaws fled soon after police retaliation, Mishra said adding
bodies of two Naxals were recovered after the firing had stopped.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/470756_Two-Naxals-killed-in-police-firing-in-Dantewada
chhotemianinshallah
STAFF WRITER 1:37 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 15 (PTI) The blood pressure of critically ill CPI(M)
patriarch Jyoti Basu dropped suddenly late tonight with the hospital
authorities summoning the former chief minister's family, an attending
doctor said.
"Basu's family members were called as his blood pressure abruptly
dropped. A new medicine was administered and his condition stabilised
to a certain extent," Dr Ranjan Sarker, a nephrolgist on the medical
board at the AMRI Hospital told reporters.
Sarker said that he consulted his counterpart at AIIMS, New Delhi D M
Bhowmick and took his advice.
Basu, he said, was on full ventilation and full life support.
The report of the CPI(M) leader's dialysis was satisfactory, he said.
The doctors would monitor Basu for the entire night and a review
meeting will be held in the morning, he said.
Basu's son, Chandan, his wife Rakhi and other family members arrived
at the hospital after being summoned.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/470781_Family-members-called-after-abrupt-drop-in-Basu-s-bp
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 16, 2010
By Gladson Dungdung
Jharkhandmirror.org
11 January, 2010
Police torture
When the people of the entire world were greeting to each other,
bursting crackers and enjoying delicious food on the occasion of the
new year 2010, the police of Chhatarpur, Town and Sadar police
stations of Palamu district, (which is the most Maoist infested area
according to the government and the media reports) in Jharkhand, were
very much engaged in humiliating, torturing and beating to Rajendra
Yadav of Telaria village (Chhatarpur) alleging him as a Naxalite
without any proof, which led to his death. He had been illegally
detained in the police custody for more than 60 hours. The police
justified it saying, “Since the Maoists had planted landmines on the
road therefore Rajendra Yadav was not taken to the court.”
Interestingly, the police did not recover any landmine from the spot
therefore one can see it as an attempt to bury the inhuman acts of the
Indian’s inhuman gunmen.
According to Dashrath Yadad, the father of Rajendra Yada, his son was
taken under the custody by the police of Chhatarpur police station in
the morning on December 30, 2009. On the next day, he went to
Chhatarpur police station for inquiring about his son and the police
told him that his son was sent to the office of the Superintendent of
Police (SP). Thereafter, he immediately rushed to the SP’s office
where he did not find his son and returned home with the empty hand.
On 1st January, Dashrath Yadav came to know about the detention of his
son in Town Police station and subsequently, he reached to the police
station at 3’O clock in the afternoon. He was shocked to see Rajendra,
who was suffering from terrible pain and not even able to speak
clearly. Dashrath Yadav went back to home after painful experience. In
the early morning on January 2, the police informed him about the
death of his son, which was not unexpected.
The inhuman acts of the police did not end here. The next step of the
police was to destroy the evidence of their inhuman acts. The police
conducted post-mortem in absence of family members of the deceased.
The medical officer of Daltenganj Sadar Hospital, Dr. Ajay Kumar
Pathak was either bribed or influenced by the police for preparing a
false post-mortem report, which states the cause of death as long
illness of Rajendra Yadav rather than torture, beating on ill-
treatment in the police stations, which created anger among the
people. Since, the villagers were very upset on inhuman acts of the
police therefore there was a public outrage against the police. After
getting support of the people, the deceased’s family demanded for the
re-post-mortem of the dead body, a high level inquiry on the matter
and compensation to them.
Consequently, the Jharkhand government accepted couple of their
demands. A team of doctors was constituted for conducting the re-post-
mortem. The second post-mortem was conducted in Ranchi. The doctors
found injuries in inside and outside of the dead body and reasoned the
heavy bleeding as the cause of death. Finally, a criminal case was
filed against the police of all the three police stations, who were
involved in the inhuman treatment of Rajendra Yadav. The government
also constituted a team of inquiry consisting of IAS officer A.N.
Pandey and IPS officer Murarilal Meena. Ironically, they did not visit
to the village of Rajendra Yadav and returned from the office of
Chhatarpur SDO. The reason told was ‘security’. Question is why are
these officers paid the public money if they are only concerned about
their security?
Obviously, Rajendra Yadav is not the only one, who has undergone
through such inhuman treatments of the India’s legal gunmen but there
are hundreds of people undergo through the same kinds of inhuman
treatments all most everyday across the country. There are thousands
of painful testimonies of rape after rape, torture after torture and
killing after killing by the police and security forces, whose role is
to protect us, that’s what our legal texts describe. The fact is our
legal gunmen are very much indulged in the inhuman acts of rape,
torture, killing, bribery, threatening and the list goes on. In fact,
the FIRs are not registered easily, fake encounters are organized for
self interest and the impunity is always enjoyed by them. One has to
bribe to the police in every check post and the police station. Now,
the police stations have become the place of ill-treatment, torture,
killing, bribery and manipulation. What kind of the national security
is this?
Indeed, the top copes are not different from the small gunmen. We have
heard the story of how IG Natrajan repeatedly raped Sushma Baraik an
Adivasis women in Ranchi by luring her for a job. We know how the IPS
officer Sumit Singh Sani exploited her women colleague and of course
we are fully aware about the heartbreaking inhuman acts of former
Haryana DGP, SPS Rathore. In fact, everyone is aware about the inhuman
acts of the former DIG of Rajasthan Madhukar Tondon, Narendra Modi’s
top cope Banjara and there is a long list of our top copes, who are
very much indulged in the inhuman acts. Many reports suggest that the
women were raped, innocent were tortured and many lost their lives due
to inhuman acts of the India’s legal gunmen, which is much more than
the people who lost their lives in the Naxal violence. Of course, one
should not justify the Naxal violence. However, our text books teach
us that the police are to protect us and maintain law and order, which
is partly true therefore our children should be also taught about the
inhuman acts of the police and security forces so that they would be
always prepared to face them.
Needless to say that the women are raped, poor are tortured and many
innocent people are killed in the name of the national security.
Therefore, the corporate home minister P. Chidambaram must respond us
before going for the second phase of the operation green hunt in the
state of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh that why his gunmen are so
inhuman? Can he give us the guarantee of security by these inhuman
legal gunmen? Do the training procedures destroy humanity of these
gunmen? Why doesn’t he go for a debate in the Indian parliament to
find out the procedures to make these inhuman gunmen to human ones?
And will he start operation red hunt against his inhuman gunmen to
right their wrongs or will he allow them to enjoy the impunity as they
have been enjoying for the decades? Perhaps, if we don’t respond these
questions now, the humiliation, ill-treatment, torture, rape and
killing of thousands of Rajendras by these inhuman gunmen of India
will continue in the name of the national security.
Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer from Jharkhand.
He can be reached at gladsonhractivist
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/the-india%E2%80%99s-inhuman-gunmen/
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 16, 2010
OUR CORRESPONDENT
The protesters at Kute village on Wednesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh
Ranchi, Jan. 13: At least 10 people sustained injuries when Central
Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawans lathicharged a mob protesting
against a proposal to set up a CISF camp at Kute village in
Jagannathpur today.
The incident took place around 8.30am when the villagers assembled
after having information of uprooting a Sarna flag they had put on the
proposed site to restrain CISF officials from starting the work.
The injured were admitted to HEC Plant Hospital with injuries on heads
and legs. But they were reported out of danger. Darshan Mahto, Santosh
Mahto, Nepal Baitha and Jeetwa Oroan, who led the mob, were identified
among the injured persons.
Superintendent of police (rural) Mohit Bundas confirmed the incident
but refused to divulge details saying that the matter was not serious.
“The matter is simple. Everything was set right immediately,” he said.
Sources, however, said CISF jawans remained in action for an hour and
a half. “The jawans did not spare anyone and assaulted all those who
came in their way. Even those having nothing to do with the agitation
were beaten up,” a resident said, adding that they were aggressive as
the visit of one of their senior officers was scheduled today.
Sub-divisional officer Rajdeep John, who was deputed to deal with the
situation, said the trouble was nothing new. “The trouble started
eight months back when 158 acres of land spared by the Heavy
Engineering Corporation (HEC) from its 3,500 acres of unused land was
transferred to CISF for setting up a camp and CISF officials took the
land in their possession to start construction,” he said.
Tribal leader Dayamani Barla, who led the villagers, said that it was
wrong on HEC’s part to sell the land acquired by the state government
for industrial purpose. “Unused land should be returned to its owners
instead of selling it to CISF,” she said.
Barla said the villagers were staging dharna at the proposed camp site
since June 6. Last month, they also rooted a Sarna flag to restrain
CISF from any construction. “When the CISF jawans today uprooted the
flag, the villagers assembled and started agitation prompting CISF
jawans to lathicharge,” she said.
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/protest-against-cisf-camp10-hurt-in-jawan-attack/
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 16, 2010
http://save-adivasis.blogspot.com/ – www.jharkhandmirror.org
15 January, 2010
On 8 January, 2010, the media (forth realm of the democracy) reported
us that the global steel giant Arcelor Mittal Company is all set to
desert the state of Jharkhand and Orissa, where the company is not yet
able to acquire land for its proposed mega steel plants because of the
Adivasis’ protest against the land acquisition. On the next day, a
leading daily of Jharkhand came up with a ’special page’ on Mittal
company apart from the auspicious front page story, which concludes
with the final verdict “the God is ready to desert Jharkhand”. Of
course, the story is not new as the Jharkhandi media carry out this
kind of biased reports for the corporate houses regularly.
In fact, when there is any kind of news in favour of the corporate
houses, it always gets space in the front page but when the news is
against of the corporate interest; it is either reported in
unnoticeable manners or did not carried out at all. Ironically, it has
been repeatedly done by the forth pillar of democracy, which is
expected to be unbiased for the sake of democracy. As far as the
Mittal Company is concerned, the media have always played a biased
role. In July 2006, when L.N. Mittal the owner of the Arcelor Mittal
Company had announced for its departure to the state of Orissa and
played a dirty game for pressurizing the state government, the media
told us the same thing that the ‘God is leaving the state’. The
relevance questions are – Is Mittal our God? Are we incomplete without
him and does Mittal really care about us?
The media houses have been attempting to coin L.N. Mittal as our
(Jharkhandi people) god since the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding)
was signed between the company and the Jharkhand government on October
8, 2005. The company has proposed for setting up a mega steel plant
with the capacity of 12 million tones per annum at an estimated
investment of Rs 40,000 crore. In addition to the steel plant, it has
also proposed to set up a 2500 megawatt mega power plant and mining
projects in the state. The company requires 25,000 acres of land and
20,000 unit water per hour for the mega steel plant and a township in
Torpa-Kamdara region of Khunti and Gumla district. According to the
original plan, the steel plant was to come up by the end of 2009 and
the production would begin from 2012. Consequently, there would be a
mass displacement as 256 villages would be affected therefore the
Adivasis are protesting against it.
However, the right from the beginning the media houses are playing a
dubious role. The newspapers regularly reported that the company
requires only 12 thousand acres of land and would provide job to 1
lack people in the state. The same newspapers are now reporting that
the company requires 25 thousand acres of land for the plant, where 50
thousand people will get the jobs. The newspapers never report us that
how the Mittal company has suppressed its own employees and thrown
them out of the jobs when the company was in loss. A question comes to
my mind is how can L.N. Mittal become our God who did not even spend a
pie for India (which he claims as his own country) without self
interest in his lifetime?
The Arcelor Mittal Company operates in 60 countries across the world
and it has plants in 20 countries. In 2009, the company deserted
thousands of its own employees across the globe. The demand of
company’s steel had gone down to10 percent and its share fell down by
7 percent. The company had to cut production in Canada by 45 percent
and axed 9,000 employees. It also cut the job of 1000 employees in
lowest cost plant in Poland and shut down one out of its two blast
furnaces in west Belgium. The Company was in the process to idle a
plant in East Chicago and lay off another 400 workers. The company had
total workforces of 3,26,000 which was cut down to 3,15,867
consequently, 10,133 people lost their jobs in the company by the end
of October, 2009. Hence, the company has failed in protecting the
rights of its own employees. In these circumstances, how can it give
us the guarantee of jobs security in India and why our media do not
bother to inform us about it? Do media run on coverage package of
Mittal?
Obviously, the Mittal Company has either purchased the media or
influence in some other ways, which is of course resulting in the
media’s exaggeration, manufacturing the consent and convincing people
in favour of the company. The media exaggerated Mittal’s entry as a
great achievement for the state and when the company threatened
repeatedly to leave the state, the media coined it as the sky is going
to fall in Jharkhad. The announcement of ITI was also projected as it
would change the fate of the Adivasis. It was coined in such a manner
that without Mittal, Adivasis of the region are beasts, uncivilized
and sub-human. Finally, the CSR was propagated as it will change the
fate of Jharkhand in over night. All these were done in complete
planned manner to get the land by projecting Mittal as Messiah of
Jharkhand therefore now when he has announced of shifting the project
to the state of Karnata, the media keep telling us that the God is
about to desert us therefore we should go to him, plead for not to
leave us and surrender our ancestral lands for his steel plant.
Indeed, the Indian democracy is run by the corporate houses and the
media is part of it. As far as the people especially the marginalized
are concerned, they have only right to vote, which is also snatched by
the threat of money, muscle and manipulation power. Of course, the
corporate houses were not our god, they are not our god and they will
never be our god. If they leave the state, we have nothing to lose but
the politicians, who get huge money to buy the votes. However, the
recent breaking news on ‘coverage package’ is the best example of how
the forth realm of democracy is also on sale and betrays its own
people. Should we still believe on the Media? If the media go on like
this, we would have only choice to tell is ‘the media is of the
corporate, for the corporate and by the corporate. Meanwhile, we are
hopping that the Mittal also comes up with his own media house to
manipulate the Adivasis’ lands but even after that he will never be
our god.
Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer from Jharkhand.
He can be reached at gladsonhractivist
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/is-mittal-our-god-by-gladson-dungdung/
chhotemianinshallah
Democratic Rights, PUDR- Chhatisgarh
Posted by Rajeesh on January 16, 2010
An Open Letter To The Prime Minister
‘There is an undeclared emergency in operation in Dantewada — people
are being denied access to the area and information, detained
illegally, implicated in false cases, threatened, tortured and
killed’.
People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Dear Mr Prime Minister
With great dismay we want to bring to your notice the rapid breakdown
of constitutional order in Chhattisgarh since November 2009. You must
be aware that since the year 2005, the Dantewada district of this
state has witnessed intensified conflict between state and the CPI
(Maoist). In course of this conflict, more than 600 villages have been
uprooted leading to forced displacement of lakhs of adivasis. The
Chhattisgarh administration has also enlisted the support of the
controversial Salwa Judum ‘andolan’ to counter the CPI (Maoist),
besides appointing thousands of Special Police Offices (SPOs). The
sequence of events since November 2009 underlines a comprehensive
breakdown of the rule of law and pulverization of democratic space in
Chhattisgarh. We therefore urge you to take note of the following:
The Case of Sodi Sambo
• On October 1, 2009, there was an alleged incident of killings by
police and SPOs in Gompad village, Dantewada, described by the
district SP as an ‘encounter’ to a broad based fact finding team
including the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR, Delhi) and
the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL, Chhattisgarh), Action Aid
and Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (Dantewada) etc. Sodi Sambo is one of the
victims and witnesses of the Gompad killings and a petitioner in Writ
Petition (Criminal) No. 103 of 2009 in the Supreme Court.
• On January 3, 2010, when Sambo was on her way to Delhi for treatment
of her leg which had been shot, she was taken away by the police. This
despite the fact that Sambo is innocent and faces no criminal charges/
despite the police declaration that there are no charges against her.
• On January 5, the police informed the press that SP Dantewada had
received a complaint from some “relative” of Sambo that Himanshu Kumar
of VCA had ‘abducted’ Sambo. Significantly, Himanshu Kumar is
petitioner no.1 in the writ petition filed against the Dantewada
police, in the Supreme Court.
• On January 6, the PUCL and PUDR filed an application in the Supreme
Court that the Petitioner No. 13 in the Criminal Writ Petition No. 103
of 2009, Sodi Sambo, was being intimidated to coerce her into
withdrawing her petition. The petition prayed that she be permitted to
come to Delhi to continue her treatment at the St. Stephens Hospital
and that the state bears her expenses for the same. All this while,
Sambo was kept in a hospital in Jagdalpur where the treatment required
for her leg was not available. Even the journalists from Indian
Express and Tehelka were prevented from meeting her.
• On January 7, the Supreme Court ordered the State of Chhattisgarh to
not prevent Sodi Sambo from travelling to Delhi for medical treatment
at St. Stephens Hospital at her own cost. The National Alliance for
People’s Movement (NAPM) team met the SP Dantewada so they could meet
and escort Sambo to Delhi. They were brusquely told not to interfere
and that the Petitioner Organization, PUCL or others will not be
permitted to have any role in this regard. The model argument for
denying access to her has been that as a witness, she needs to be
protected from anybody influencing her. Ironically, Sambo is being
‘protected’ by the same police that she alleges are responsible for
her injuries. Sambo has now been shifted to AIIMS in Delhi by the
Chhattisgarh government. Sambo’s lawyer has also not been allowed to
meet her. Why is the Chhattisgarh government so wary of anybody
meeting Sambo? Is it because she is a witness to the state’s excesses
on adivasis which has been continuously going on for the past four
years?
Targeting of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram
• We would also like to bring to your notice the reprehensible
harassment of civil rights and democratic spaces, like the Vanvasi
Chetna Ashram (VCA), in Chattisgarh. The VCA, led by Gandhian Himanshu
Kumar, has been raising and documenting the atrocities on innocent
adivasis by state forces on the pretext of fighting Naxals in
Dantewada. Himanshu had planned a padyatra beginning December 14,
2009, to be followed by a saytagraha and a jan sunvai (public
hearing), for which Home minister P.Chidambaram had agreed to come. He
was denied permission for the padyatra and satyagraha in Dantewada. A
national team of women traveling to participate in the programme were
stopped in Raipur, humiliated and finally not allowed to reach
Dantewada. On December10, 2009 (Human Right Day), one of the VCA’s
main activists, Kopa Kunjam, was picked up along with lawyer Alban
Toppo. While Alban was let off after some beating, Kopa was slammed
with murder charges and still languishes in jail. Another VCA
activist, Sukhnath, has been falsely implicated and booked under
Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA). Earlier in May,
2009, VCA premises were demolished bypassing legal procedures. VCA was
asked to vacate the rented accommodation as the landlord was under
pressure from the administration to do so. The VCA has now been
blacklisted by the Chhattisgarh administration.
Rape and Intimidation of Women of Samsetti Village
• Four adivasi girls from Samsetti village, Sukma block of Dantewada,
were raped by Special Police Officers (SPO) two years ago. The issue
was brought to light by the magazine Tehelka and Himanshu Kumar’s
sustained efforts helped registration of a rape case in Bilaspur High
Court in March 2009, even as the police refused to file FIRs. These
women were picked up by the same SPOs when their cases were to come up
for hearing in the courts on December, 10. They were beaten, illegally
kept at the police station for five days and their thumb imprints
taken on a blank sheet to say that Himanshu Kumar had pressurized them
to level false charges of rape.
Obstructing rights’ groups, researchers and journalists from
functioning in the state
• Two Professors from Delhi University, Nandini Sundar and Ujjwal
Kumar Singh who were in Dantewada from December 29-31, 2009, were
surrounded and trailed by armed SPOs throughout their visit. Hotel
owners denied them lodging at the behest of the Chhattisgarh
government and the Dantewada police.
• On January 5, 2010 Satyen Bordoloi and Priyanka Borpujari,
journalists from Bombay who had been highlighting violations by the
state and the VCA’s struggles in the print and electronic media,
Suresh Deepala, law student and AID volunteer from Hyderabad, and
Nishtha, a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who were
visiting Himanshu for the jan sunwai, were surrounded by 25 armed
police and SPOs and prevented from leaving. They were assaulted and
their cameras taken away.
• On January 6, activists from NAPM including Medha Patkar and Sandeep
Pandey were assaulted by a mob brought in from Kasauli Relief Camp by
an organization called Maa Danteshwari Swabhiman Manch, essentially a
new version of Salwa Judum. Eggs and sewage were thrown at the
delegation. 25 to 30 adivasis who still dared to come for the Jan
Sunvai were also stopped, harassed and intimidated by the police.
There is an undeclared emergency in operation in Dantewada where
people are being denied access to the area and information, detained
illegally, implicated in false cases, threatened, tortured and killed.
The Home Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram was apprised of the problems but
he has chosen to remain silent for in the war against Naxals,
everything seems fair to him. We would therefore like you to ponder
and answer if the tribal people of Dantewada are not citizens of this
country? Are they not supposed to have a say in the development of
this country? Why are they expected to keep quiet as their resources,
livelihoods and lives are snatched away to benefit a few? How fair is
the state’s strategy of displacing them and handing over their natural
resources to private corporations? Can all opposition, including
peaceful, Gandhian protests, to state policies be declared Naxalite
and thereby brushed aside? And finally, can we in the name of fighting
Naxalism put democracy and our constitution to peril and is this the
only answer that a state worthy of calling itself a democracy has to
such challenges?
It has also come to our knowledge that the combing operation in
Chhattisgarh has begun and security forces have entered the jungles
from Konta, the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh. This could not have
been done without the knowledge and approval of the Home Ministry. It
should also be noted that ‘Operation Greenhunt’ against Maoists was
disowned by your government but what we are seeing is its
surreptitious continuation without an official name. As the Prime
Minister of this country, we hope you will break your silence and
accept responsibility for the wrongs being committed in Chhattisgarh
and take immediate action to restore constitutional freedoms in the
state.
Sincerely
People’s Union for Democratic Rights, PUDR
Source –
http://outlookindia.com/
www.pudr.org
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 16, 2010
BHUBANESWAR: In a major breakthrough, the police in Bhubaneswar on
Friday reportedly arrested Subhashree Panda alias Mili, wife of the
most wanted Maoist leader of Orissa, Sabyasachi Panda. However, no
police officer is willing to be quoted to confirm her arrest.
Mili, married to the dreaded Maoist leader since 1997, is believed to
an active member of the Vamsadhara unit of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
She is understood to be in charge of fund raising for the Vamsadhara
dalam led by her husband.
Sabyasachi is leading the Maoist movement in Orissa and had
masterminded the daring missions such as 2007 attack on police
establishments in Nayagarh town. At least 13 policemen were killed in
the incident. He also allegedly killed 38 greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh
in Balimela reservoir in the same year.
Sabyasachi is also said to be behind the sensational killing of senior
VHP leader Swami Laxmananand Saraswati at his latter’s ashram at
Jalesapeta in Kandhamal district on August 23 last year.
The top Maoist married Mili, a native of Nimapara, nearly 60 km from
here, in 1997. Mili went underground since her marriage.
Incidentally, her mother Jyotsna Das is the local leader of the ruling
Biju Janata Dal and has been elected as a councilor in the Nimapara
Notified Area Council.
Sources said she was arrested by a team of Special Operation Group, a
dedicated force of Orissa police engaged in anti-Maoist operations,
from a house at Palaspalli, a posh locality close to Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik’s residence here.
A laptop, several CDs, an undisclosed amount of cash and maps of some
important localities having vital installations and incriminating
documents have reportedly been recovered from the lady.
Immediately after her arrest, Subhashree was reportedly taken to the
Mahila police station here immediately under heavy police escort and
then whisked away in police vehicles to an unknown place for
interrogation.
Police sources said she may be produced before the court on Saturday
to seek remand in police for a few days.
“She is a prize catch. Her arrest is a severe jolt to the Maoist
movement in Orissa,” a senior police, requesting anonymity, told “The
ET”.
Siddhartha Panda, brother of the dreaded Maoist leader, however said
the couple had snapped links with their respective families since
long. Siddhartha, a native of Nayagarh, is a local BJD leader. ET
chhotemianinshallah
Dantewada
Posted by Rajeesh on January 15, 2010
Amresh Mishra, Superintendent of Police (SP), Dantewada, dodging
questions of a group of journalists and concerned citizens and
engaging in double talk. Going by his speech, it seems he knows
nothing and that too in a case like that of Sodi Sambo who is the sole
survivor of the murder of 9 villagers by the police itself in Gompad
village. Can police engage in abduction of citizens? You have proof
right here when without warrant, without any legal proceedings,
without any real concern or complaint from anyone (the talk of her
parents and relatives are fictitious because she has no parents and
only has a husband and 4 children and distant relatives can always be
created) the police abduct a woman previously injured by the police
when the woman has filed a case against the same police and not
allowed to meet anyone by the police (cheesy isn’t it, sadly true as
well). If she disappears (quite likely), you know where she went and
whom to blame. Would the police be charged for kidnapping and culpable
homicide (if she disappears) in such an open and shut case? And would
SP Amresh Mishra be a co-conspirator in such a case? And would the
court take this video as proof of the involvement of Amresh Mishra if
she disappears?
Watch Video
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 11, 2010
Source: Revolution in South Aisa Posted by Ka Frank on January 9, 2010
77% of the people of India live on less than $0.50 per day
This article was published on the newly launched website of the
International Campaign Against the War on the People of India on
January 7, 2010.
The Developmental Terrorism of the Indian State
A document prepared by Sanhati Collective
It has been widely reported in the press that the Indian government is
planning an unprecedented military offensive against alleged Maoist
rebels, using paramilitary and counter-insurgency forces, possibly the
Indian Armed Forces and even the Indian Air Force. This military
operation is going to be carried out in the forested and semi-forested
rural areas of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand,West Bengal and Maharashtra, populated mainly by the tribal
(indigenous) people of India. Reportedly, the offensive has been
planned in consultation with US counter-insurgency agencies.
To put the Indian government’s proposed military offensive in proper
perspective one needs to understand the economic, social and political
background to the conflict. In particular, there are three dimensions
of the crisis that needs to be emphasized, because it is often
overlooked: (a) the development failure of the post-colonial Indian
state, (b) the continued existence and often exacerbation of the
structural violence faced by the poor and marginalized, and (c) the
full-scale assault on the meager resource base of the peasantry and
the tribal (indigenous people) in the name of “development”.
Let us look at each of these in turn, but before we do so it needs to
be stressed that the facts we mention below are not novel; they are
well-known if only conveniently forgotten. Most of these facts were
pointed out by the April 2008 Report of the Expert Group of the
Planning Commission of the Indian Government (headed by retired civil
servant D. Bandopadhyay) to study “development challenges in extremist
affected areas”.
The post-colonial Indian State, both in its earlier Nehruvian and the
more recent neoliberal variant, has failed miserably to solve the
basic problems of poverty, employment and income, housing, primary
health care, education and inequality and social discrimination of the
people of the country. The utter failure of the development strategy
of the post-colonial State is the ground on which the current conflict
arises.
To recount some well known but oft-forgotten facts, recall that about
77 percent of the Indian population in 2004-05 had a per capita daily
consumption expenditure of less than Rs. 20; that is less than 50
cents by the current nominal exchange rate between the rupee and the
US dollar and about $2 in purchasing power parity terms. According to
the 2001 Census, even 62 years after political independence, only
about 42 percent of Indian households have access to electricity.
About 80 percent of the households do not have access to safe drinking
water; that is a staggering 800 million people lacking access to
potable water.
What is the condition of the working people in the country? 93 percent
of the workforce, the overwhelming majority of the working people in
India, are what the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) called “informal workers”; these workers
lack any employment security, work security and social security. About
58 percent of them work in the agricultural sector and the rest is
engaged in manufacturing and services. Wages are very low and working
conditions extremely onerous, leading to persistent and deep poverty,
which has been increasing over the last decade and a half in absolute
terms: the number of what the National Commission for Enterprises in
the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) called the “poor and vulnerable”
increased from 811 million in 1999-00 to 836 million in 2004-05.
Since majority of the working people still work in the agricultural
sector, the economic stagnation in agriculture is a major cause for
the continued poverty of the vast majority of the people. Since the
Indian state did not undertake land reforms in any meaningful sense,
the distribution of land remains extremely skewed to this day. Close
to 60 percent of rural households are effectively landless; and
extreme economic vulnerability and despair among the small and
marginal peasantry has resulted in the largest wave of suicides in
history: between 1997 and 2007, 182,936 farmers committed suicide.
This is the economic setting of the current conflict.
But in this sea of poverty and misery, there are two sections of the
population that are much worse off than the rest: the Scheduled Caste
(SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) population. On almost all indicators of
social well being, the SCs and STs are worse off than the general
population: poverty rates are higher, landlessness is higher, infant
mortality rates are higher, levels of formal education are lower, and
so on. To understand this differential in social and economic
deprivation we need to look at the second aspect of the current crisis
that we had alluded to: structural violence.
There are two dimensions of this structural violence: (a) oppression,
humiliation and discrimination along the lines of caste and ethnicity
and (b) regular harassment, violence and torture by arms of the State.
For the SC and ST population, therefore, the violence of poverty,
hunger and abysmal living conditions has been complemented and
worsened by the structural violence that they encounter daily.
It is the combination of the two, general poverty and the brutality
and injustice of the age old caste system, kept alive by countless
social practices despite numerous legislative measures by the Indian
state, that makes this the most economically deprived and socially
marginalized section of the Indian population. This social
discrimination, humiliation and oppression is of course very
faithfully reflected in the behavior of the police and other law-
enforcing agencies of the State towards the poor SC and ST population,
who are constantly harassed, beaten up and arrested on the slightest
pretext. For this population, therefore, the State has not only
totally neglected their economic and social development, it is an
oppressor and exploiter. While the SC and ST population together
account for close to a quarter of the Indian population, they are the
overwhelming majority in the areas where the Indian government
proposes to carry out its military offensive against alleged Maoist
rebels. This, then, is the social background of the current conflict.
This brings us to the third dimension of the problem: unprecedented
attack on the access of the marginalized and poor to common property
resources. Compounding the persistent poverty and the continuing
structural violence has been the State’s recent attempt to usurp the
meager resource base of the poor and marginalized, a resource base
that was so far largely outside the ambit of the market. The
neoliberal turn in the policy framework of the Indian state since the
mid 1980s has, therefore, only further worsened the problems of
economic vulnerability and social deprivation.
Whatever little access the poor had to forests, land, rivers, common
pastures, village tanks and other common property resources to cushion
their inevitable slide into poverty and immiserization has come under
increasing attack by the Indian state in the guise of so-called
development projects: Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other
“development” projects related to mining, industrial development,
Information Technology parks, etc. Despite numerous protests from
people and warnings from academics, the Indian State has gone ahead
with the establishment of 531 SEZs. The SEZs are areas of the country
where labour and tax laws have been consciously weakened, if not
totally abrogated by the State to “attract” foreign and domestic
capital; SEZs, almost by definition, require a large and compact tract
of land, and thus inevitably mean the loss of land, and thus
livelihood, by the peasantry. To the best of our knowledge, there have
been no serious, rigorous cost-benefit analysis of these projects to
date; but this does not prevent the government from claiming that the
benefits of these projects, in terms of employment generation and
income growth, will far outweigh the costs of revenue loss from
foregone taxes and lost livelihoods due to the assault on land.
The opposition to the acquisition of land for these SEZ and similar
projects have another dimension to it. Dr. Walter Fernandes, who has
studied the process of displacement in post-independence India in
great detail, suggests that around 60 million people have faced
displacement between 1947 and 2004; this process of displacement has
involved about 25 million hectares of land, which includes 7 million
hectares of forests and 6 million hectares of other common property
resources. How many of these displaced people have been resettled?
Only one in every three. Thus, there is every reason for people not to
believe the government’s claims that those displaced from their land
will be, in any meaningful sense, resettled. This is one of the most
basic reasons for the opposition to displacement and dispossession.
But, how have the rich done during this period of unmitigated disaster
for the poor? While the poor have seen their incomes and purchasing
power tumble down precipitously in real terms, the rich have, by all
accounts, prospered beyond their wildest dreams since the onset of the
liberalization of the Indian economy. There is widespread evidence
from recent research that the level of income and wealth inequality in
India has increased steadily and drastically since the mid 1980s. A
rough overview of this growing inequality is found by juxtaposing two
well known facts: (a) in 2004-05, 77 percent of the population spent
less than Rs. 20 a day on consumption expenditure; and (b) according
to the annual World Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch and
Capgemini in 2008, the millionaire population in India grew in 2007 by
22.6 per cent from the previous year, which is higher than in any
other country in the world.
It is, thus, the development disaster of the Indian State, the
widening levels of disparity and the continuing problems of social
deprivation and structural violence when compounded by the all-out
effort to restrict access to common property resources that, according
to the Expert Group of the Planning Commission, give rise to social
anger, desperation and unrest. In almost all cases the affected people
try to ventilate their grievances using peaceful means of protest;
they take our processions, they sit on demonstrations, they submit
petitions.
The response of the State is remarkably consistent in all these cases:
it cracks down on the peaceful protestors, sends in armed goons to
attack the people, slaps false charges against the leaders and arrests
them and often also resorts to police firing and violence to terrorize
the people. We only need to remember Singur, Nandigram, Kalinganagar
and countless other instances where peaceful and democratic forms of
protest were crushed by the state with ruthless force.
It is, thus, the action of the State that blocks off all forms of
democratic protest and forces the poor and dispossessed to take up
arms to defend their rights, as has been pointed out by social
activists like Arundhati Roy. The Indian government’s proposed
military offensive will repeat that story all over again. Instead of
addressing the source of the conflict, instead of addressing the
genuine grievances of the marginalized people along the three
dimensions that we have pointed to, the Indian state seems to have
decided to opt for the extremely myopic option of launching a military
offensive.
It is also worth remembering that the geographical terrain, where the
government’s military offensive is planned, is very well-endowed with
natural resources like minerals, forest wealth, biodiversity and water
resources, and has of late been the target of systematic usurpation by
several large, both Indian and foreign, corporations. So far, the
resistance of the local indigenous people against their displacement
and dispossession has prevented the government-backed corporates from
exploiting the natural resources for their own profits and without
regard to ecological and social concerns.
We fear that the government’s offensive is also an attempt to crush
such democratic and popular resistance against dispossession and
impoverishment; the whole move seems to be geared towards facilitating
the entry and operation of these large corporations and paving the way
for unbridled exploitation of the natural resources and people of
these regions
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/sanhati-development-terrorism-in-india/
chhotemianinshallah
Posted by Rajeesh on January 9, 2010
Source:Tehalka
The hounding of activist Himanshu Kumar is a parable about the war and
panic in Chhattisgarh and the complete blackout of information,
reports TUSHA MITTAL
Time out, Gandhi Himanshu fasting; December 2009. His ashram was
rubbled by the State in May
PHOTOS: TARUN SEHRAWAT
HIMANSHU KUMAR is shaving his moustache to become more unrecognisable.
Instead of the usual white kurta, he’s wearing a red shirt and jeans.
The lights in his two-room rented house have been turned off. If you
chanced upon him on a winter night in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh,
speaking in hushed whispers about jumping off the back wall and
disappearing into the darkness, you might have mistaken this Gandhian
activist for a fugitive.
For the last 18 years, Himanshu has been trudging through the jungles
of rural Chhattisgarh, empowering tribals, teaching them how to vote
and bringing them access to food and healthcare through his Vanvasi
Chetna Ashram (VCA). When his wife first joined him, he told her to
replace her make-up kit with medicines. Despite living in this Maoist-
dominated conflict zone for nearly two decades, despite its many
intimidations, Kumar has never felt the urge to flee. Until now that
is – when the might of the State is upon him.
Trouble first began to escalate in 2005 when the infamous Salwa Judum
was launched. The VCA filed at least 600 complaints against human
rights violations by the State and fake encounters by the police.
Himanshu Kumar was transformed in the State’s eyes from trusted aide
to adversary. In May 2009, his ashram was brutally demolished by the
police. Now suddenly, the Gandhian activist has lost his liberty. He
lives in a free country, but does not have the freedom to walk out
through the front door of his own house.
“Should I get arrested and become a martyr or should I leave before
they catch me?” Himanshu Kumar wonders out loud on the morning of
January 4. He knows what happened to Binayak Sen. He knows he could be
next. “I’m worried the police will implicate me in a false case. They
could arrest me anytime now,” he says.
If the injured Shambo reached Delhi, she could be a big embarrassment
This is not misplaced paranoia. Himanshu’s makeshift ashram is under
constant police surveillance. On January 3, his car was stopped by the
police as it sped from Dantewada to Raipur carrying Sodi Shambo, 28, a
tribal woman with a fractured leg held together by a metal rod.
Shambo’s husband was tilling the fields on the morning of October 1,
2009, when Salwa Judum SPOs barged into Goompad village. One bullet
from their guns split open her leg. Her children leapt towards her,
covering her body. That could be why she is still alive. Nine others
were killed during combing operations. Most were those who could not
run away — Madvi Yankaiya, 50; Madvi Bajaar 50 and his wife Madvi
Subhi, 45; their daughters Madvi Kanama, 20 and eight-year-old Madvi
Mooti; and a newly married couple Soyam Subaiya, 20 and Soyam Subhi,
18. Another 2-year-old boy was found with his fingers missing. The
Dantewada SP announced that nine Naxalites had been killed in an
encounter in Goompad village. This is the tale the outside world would
have believed, had Himanshu not met Shambo during a regular public
hearing in the forest. She told him about the massacre she had
witnessed; he ensured she filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court.
The court accepted her petition and directed the state to file a
response.
Had Shambo reached Delhi, where she was headed for medical treatment,
she could have become a major embarrassment for the Chhattisgarh
government. This is why Himanshu and Shambo were suddenly surrounded
by police on the highway and detained at Kanker police station. There
was an order from the Dantewada SP that Shambo be produced in the
police station to record her statement on the Goompad killings. Shambo
had been living openly in Himanshu’s ashram in Dantewada for the last
two months but the police had not approached her for a statement. “We
did not know where she was. We were trying to find her,” says SP
Amaresh Mishra ingenuously. “I found out through an Internet forum
that Himanshu was taking her to Raipur. I also got a letter from
Shambo’s masi two days ago accusing Himanshu of vanishing Shambo all
this while.” This was a patently concocted assertion given that
Himanshu had presented Shambo to the media at a big press conference
in Delhi in October. Clearly, a false case of abduction against Kumar
was in the works. According to Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate who
has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the Shambo case,
it’s actually the other way around. “This amounts to illegal abduction
by the police. Shambo is not an accused. She cannot be forced to go
anywhere,” said he.
On January 4, Shambo was sent to Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur for
further treatment under police “security.” Sudhir Thakhur, the doctor
responsible, admitted the hospital did not have the required medical
facility to perform Shambo’s surgery. TEHELKAwas not allowed to speak
to Shambo at the hospital, despite a guarantee from the Dantewada SP
that she was not being kept in confinement. Even after the director of
the hospital gave permission, police personnel guarding Shambo’s bed
refused to let us near her. When we tried to talk to the ward nurse,
the police ensured they overheard the conversation.
As Himanshu shaves off his moustache in the darkness, it is almost as
if he is at a tipping point. Caught in a pool of quicksand, he must
leap out immediately or sink. “My faith is not shaken. I’m just
feeling trapped inside a web. To break this perhaps it is necessary
for me to go fight from a new place. I am not running away. I just
need to change my location.”
THE BATTLE between the State and Maoists is well known. But in
Chhattisgarh, another battle has been fast gathering steam — between
the State and civil society, between a policed existence and the idea
of democracy, between a coerced media and free speech. Himanshu Kumar
is now at the centre of that battle. Over the years, he had become one
of the few bridges that link the rest of India to the remote jungles
of Chhattisgarh. Given the national media’s neglect, and the absence
of a robust local press, he was perhaps the only disseminator of an
alternate reality. Without him and a few other activists working in
the area, there would be only one version — that of the State. This is
what the Chhattisgarh government is now trying to create. Every few
days there is news of an encounter — six killed in Jagargunda, another
six killed in Gumyipal. No one knows if these are Naxals or ordinary
tribals. The State doesn’t seem to want anyone to find out.
At a recent press conference in Raipur, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan
told journalists on record that there could be police action against
them if they wrote in favour of Naxalites. Two weeks ago in Dantewada,
DIG SR Kalluri called journalists into his office for one-on-one
sessions. “He told us not to write in favour of the Naxals (euphemism
for not writing anything against the State) and said the police have
their eyes on us,” says NRK Pillai, vice-president of the Chhattisgarh
Working Journalists Union. “The atmosphere isn’t conducive. There’s no
one really to back us. Press owners will not stand by us. There’s
always the fear of what will happen to our families.”
The State has declared war not just on Maoists but also on civil
society
In the last two months, as Operation Green Hunt has got underway, the
Chhattisgarh government has upped the ante in its efforts to squash
any space for dissent and democratic protest. Stories from the jungles
are not being allowed out; neutral outsiders are not being allowed in.
In a free state Shambo and Himanshu Kumar detained at Kanker police
station on January 3
On December 29, 2009, Delhi University professor of sociology Nandini
Sundar and political science professor Ujjwal Kumar Singh arrived in
Bastar to undertake an independent survey of the situation. They found
all the hotel rooms in the small towns of Dantewada and Sukma
mysteriously full, out of bounds for them. The professors had to spend
the night in a jeep, before they got accommodation at a boys’ hostel.
There too, seven armed SPOs barged into Sundar’s room, then spent the
night patrolling the grounds outside. The next day two jeeps of armed
SPOs followed the professors around until they left Chhattisgarh,
ensuring they could make no neutral enquiries from villagers about
what was happening on the ground.
TEHELKA was meted the same treatment. On January 4, we were denied the
right to stay at Madhuban Lodge, the only hotel in Dantewada. The
receptionist opened rooms for us at first, but suddenly changed his
mind when he got a call from his manager. The manager said the hotel
had orders from the police not to give rooms to journalists without a
“proper enquiry.” Dantewada ASP Rajendra Jaiswal denied that any such
order exists but refused to call the hotel to clarify this. “Why
should I help a stranger?” he told TEHELKA. Later, the hotel owner
said all the rooms were needed for a family function.
On January 6, a band of activists, including Medha Patkar and
Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, were assaulted with stones and
eggs as they marched to the SP’s office in Dantewada for some answers.
The police looked on.
Though there is little clarity on whether the offensive against the
Naxals – Operation Green Hunt – has officially begun, another kind of
assault certainly has. So far, Himanshu Kumar has certainly borne the
brunt of it.
On December 14, 2009, a mob several hundred-strong surrounded
Himanshu’s ashram, shouting slogans like “Himanshu Bhagao, Bastar
Bachao”. They were protesting a padyatra he was about to undertake to
engage with the tribals. Such an expedition would boost the morale of
the Maoists and dampen that of the security forces, they alleged.
According to Himanshu, the mob consisted of SPOs and tribals lifted
from Salwa Judum camps to stage a demonstration. The padyatra was to
be followed by a satyagraha to protest police excesses and a jan
sunvai (public hearing) to take stock of ground realities post the
declaration of Operation Green Hunt. In what was being perceived as a
sign of positive intent, Home Minister P Chidam baram had agreed to
attend the public hearing. Human rights groups from across the country
were scheduled to participate. But that came crashing down when the
State decided it would not allow anyone to explore its territory.
Hotels have orders from the police not to give rooms to any
journalist
HIMANSHU RECEIVED a notice from Reena Kangale, the Dantewada
collector, prohibiting him from initiating any public assembly.
“Section 144 was imposed because of municipal elections,” says
Kangale. “I denied permission for a padyatra and issued a prohibitory
order stating the police can take action if any public meetings happen
without my consent.” On December 13, an all-women fact-finding team
was stopped at several points enroute to Dantewada and not allowed
access inside. The Chhattisgarh Governor advised Chidambaram not to
attend the jan sunvayi for safety reasons. The Home Minister stayed
put.
The mob attack from “tribals” was also used as a pretext to send a
jeep of armed SPOs as security for Himanshu. “There is a threat to his
life. The tribals are unhappy with him. We are giving him police
protection,” Dantewada SP Amaresh Mishra told TEHELKA. That Himanshu
himself has written to the SP stating he does not want this protection
is irrelevant.
The police “protection” has successfully hampered Himanshu’s work. He
is unable to visit villages on fact-finding missions. Any complaints
from tribals against the State bring instant reprisals. There have
been other intimidations. Under pressure, Himanshu’s current landlord,
an employee of the local district council, asked him to vacate the
house in a few weeks.
To disable Himanshu further, his key aide Kopa Kunjam was arrested on
December 10 on charges of murdering a former sarpanch, Punem Honga.
Honga was abducted by Maoists along with another sarpanch who had been
traveling with Kopa on his bike on July 2, 2009. According to VCA, the
night before he was arrested, Kopa was offered Rs 25,000 to quit
working with Himanshu and warned of dire consequences if he continues.
Kopa refused the money. Sukhdev, another backbone of the VCA, was
threatened with a similar fate after Kopa’s arrest. He quit. Lingu,
another aide who also quit, confirmed to TEHELKA that he was with Kopa
at the Dantewada police station the day before Kopa’s arrest, and was
present when the police tried to convince Kopa to take up “other more
meaningful work”.
The Maoists are not willing to talk, and the State is clearly not
allowing any other dialogue. Himanshu’s struggle becomes more poignant
in the backdrop of the violence being unleashed all around it. The
Maoists continue to fell trees, block trains, abduct and kill. The
Salwa Judum continues to rape women, burn houses, loot and kill. Amid
all the chaos, as the year ended, one man sat in a white kurta, under
a sprawling tree, spooling a loom of thread. He had not been allowed a
padyatra or a satyagraha or a jan sunvai, so he was fasting to protest
State atrocities. But events over the last two days have forced the
man in the white kurta to shave his moustache and turn into a man in
red shirt and jeans — a reminder of an original freedom struggle,
being scuttled all over again.
WRITER’S EMAIL
tusha
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/life-behind-the-iron-curtain/
Sid Harth
STAFF WRITER 14:15 HRS IST
Patna, Jan 16 (PTI) A Maoist leader has been arrested from Kankarbagh
area here and Rs 18 lakh recovered from him, police said today.
Dwivendu Kumar Singh alias Subodh alias Anand, member of the Special
Area Committee of the proscribed CPI(Maoist) was arrested last night
in a joint operation by Special Task Force of Bihar police and Patna
police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (STF) P K Sinha said.
Besides the money, naxal literature was recovered during the
operation, Sinha said.
Further investigations in the case are on.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/471090_Maoist-leader-held-with-Rs-18-lakh
Sid Harth
Kolkata. PTI Photo Photograph (1)
Basu's all five vital organs unstable, says doctor
STAFF WRITER 15:53 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 16 (PTI) The condition of CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu
turned extremely critical today with all his vital organs affected and
"there is little hope of any good result".
"All five vital organs - heart, lungs, kidney, brain and liver - are
not functioning properly," Dr Ajit Kumar Maity, Basu's personal
physician and a memberof the medical board at AMRI hospital, where he
is admitted, told PTI.
Asked about the chances of recovery of the 95-year-old leader, Maity
said, "At this age and the complications he is suffering from, there
is little hope of any good result. The doctors are doing their best."
He said Basu, who was put on Slow Low Efficiency Daily Dialysis
(SLEDD) at noon has taken it well. "It will continue for eight hours
if there is no problem," he said.
When a patient is unable to withstand normal dialysis, SLEDD is
resorted to
http://www.ptinews.com/news/471273_Basu-s-all-five-vital-organs-unstable--says-doctor
Sid Harth
STAFF WRITER 17:16 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 16 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today saluted
ailing marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu as a 'great son of India' and
wished him quick recovery.
"Jyoti Basu is a great son of India. Our thoughts and prayers are with
him," the Prime Minister said while addressing the valedictory
function of the 150th anniversary celebrations of St. Xaviers College,
here.
"We all wish for his quick recovery," he said.
The Prime Minister had visited the veteran CPI(M) leader in hospital
on January seven and assured if any specialist was required from
anywhere in the country for consultations on Basu, he would make
arrangements for it.
Following this, the medical board constituted at the private AMRI
Hospital, where Basu is admitted, has been consulting specialists of
AIIMS, New Delhi.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/471367_Basu-as--great-son-of-India---PM
chhotemianinshallah
Updated on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 22:00 IST
Ranchi: JVM-P Chief Babulal Marandi on Saturday asked JMM-BJP
coalition whether they would support Centre's "Operation Green Hunt"
to tame Maoist guerrillas in Jharkhand, a day after the ultras killed
seven policemen and a civilian in Gumla.
"We would like to ask BJP and JMM, the bigger parties of the
coalition, whether they are ready to support Centre's proposal to
launch 'Operation Green Hunt' to root out Naxalism," Marandi told a
news conference here.
"Being the national party, BJP should clarify its stand on the
operations, he said.
Condemning yesterday's landmine blast that killed seven policemen and
a civilian in Gumla, the former Chief Minister alleged law and order
in Jharkhand had plunged to a low as coalition partners were
'wrestling for creamy portfolios'.
"Three doctors in Jamshedpur and one trader in Palamau have been
killed recently," Marandi said pointing to increasing number of
criminal activities in the state.
PTI
http://www.zeenews.com/news596495.html
chhotemianinshallah
Updated on Friday, January 15, 2010, 21:56 IST
Ranchi: Six policemen and a truck driver were killed in a landmine
blast and indiscriminate firing by Maoist rebels in Gumla district of
Jharkhand Friday evening, police said.
Rebels triggered a landmine and opened fire on nine security personnel
who were returning in a bauxite-laden truck to Gurdari police picket,
situated 160 km from Ranchi.
Six policemen, including an assistant sub inspector, were killed as
well as the truck driver, while two cops were injured.
Police have reached the spot which is located in a remote jungle area,
said police spokesperson VH Deshmukh.
Eighteen of Jharkhand's 24 districts are Maoist affected.
PTI
http://www.zeenews.com/news596221.html
chhotemianinshallah
Updated on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 21:53 IST
Gumla: The death toll in landmine blast mounted to eight after the
body of the missing policeman was recovered on Saturday.
Jharkhand Director General of Police Niaz Ahmed sought explanation
from the Superintendent of Police of Gumla on the incident where six
police personnel and a civilian had been killed when Maoists blew up
their vehicle near Gurdari mines in Bishunpur police station last
night.
"The incident seems negligence on the part of the district police. We
have sought explanation from the SP (in this regard)," the newly-
appointed DGP told newsmen here.
"Any policeman killed in such incidents is a great loss of the state.
The police system has to be strengthened," he said.
Three Inspectors General and two Deputy Inspectors General
accompanied the DGP to Gumla where funeral of the dead policemen were
held with full honour.
PTI
http://www.zeenews.com/news596493.html
chhotemianinshallah
Updated on Friday, January 15, 2010, 17:27 IST
Jamshedpur (Jharkhand): Two people, including a police constable,
were injured today in a bomb explosion in Olidih area here.
"A bomb concealed in a bag on the top of a roof exploded when the
constable tried to remove its plastic cover with a stick. It fell from
the top and went off, DSP (law and order) P N Ram said.
"The constable and an other man suffered minor injuries in the
incident and were rushed to M G M Hospital," he added.
PTI
http://www.zeenews.com/news596143.html
chhotemianinshallah
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Kolkata, January 17, 2010
First Published: 00:10 IST(17/1/2010)
Last Updated: 00:13 IST(17/1/2010)
Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu’s condition was “extremely critical”
on Saturday and he needed maximum ventilator support, doctors
attending to him said.
In the city to attend a string of programmes, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh wished the CPI-M patriarch a speedy recovery. Speaking at the
concluding session of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School’s 150th
anniversary celebrations, he said, “I would like to make a mention of
another very distinguished old boy of St. Xavier’s and a great son of
India, Shri Jyoti Basu. Our thoughts and prayers are with him.”
But at Salt Lake’s AMRI hospital, the condition of Basu (95), who
suffered a multi-organ failure, continued to deteriorate.
“We put him on slow low efficiency dialysis for eight hours at noon.
We took the decision after consultations with nephrologists at Delhi’s
AIIMS. His lungs aren’t working even with full ventilation. He is
sliding. It’s very difficult for someone of his age to bounce back
after a multi-organ failure,” said Dr Ajit Kumar Maiti, Basu’s family
physician and head of the medical team looking after him.
He said doctors were trying to cleanse the fluids in Basu’s brain
cells and lungs. Dr Trishit Ray, consultant neurologist, said, “We
have also given him injections to normalise his blood circulation
system.”
The medical bulletin issued in the evening said doctors had raised the
level of inotropic support to keep Basu’s blood pressure from dropping
too low. A doctor on the medical board said they were no longer
expecting a recovery.
Despite continuous artificial life support for 12 days, Basu’s health
has shown no signs of improvement. His lungs, liver, kidneys and
central nervous system are not functioning.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/kolkata/Jyoti-Basu-sliding-say-doctors/Article1-498331.aspx
Sid Harth
- Veteran on ‘all possible life-support systems’
OUR BUREAU
Calcutta, Jan. 16: Doctors treating Jyoti Basu today spoke of their
diminishing hopes of a “good result” for the first time as the former
chief minister’s condition worsened further and he was put on “all
possible life-support systems”.
“Given his age and the complications he is suffering from, there is
little hope of any good result,” said A.K. Maity, Basu’s personal
physician for around 30 years and a member of the medical board
monitoring his treatment at AMRI Hospitals, Salt Lake.
Late tonight, the 95-year-old developed a cardiac problem and a
pacemaker was installed.
This evening’s medical bulletin had said that Basu, admitted to the
hospital with pneumonia on January 1, was in a state of multi-organ
failure and was on maximum ventilatory support. “Inotropic (drug)
support has been increased to maintain his blood pressure,” the
bulletin said.
Doctors said almost all of Basu’s vital organs and systems — the
cardiovascular and haemodynamic (blood flow) systems, his lungs and
kidneys — had failed and he had to be given “maximum support” to keep
them functioning.
“He is on all possible life-support systems. The doses of supportive
drugs and oxygen supply have been increased by more than five times
from what we were administering two days ago,” a doctor said.
“It is very difficult for a person of his age and condition to
tolerate inotropic (blood pressure-stabilising) drugs at such high
doses for long. Although we are trying our best, anything can happen
any moment.”
Basu’s requirement of artificial oxygen too rose steadily. “There is
no sign of any improvement in his lung condition and his liver has
stopped functioning,” a doctor said.
The heavily sedated patient remained unconscious through the day, and
doctors said his central nervous system was not functioning properly.
Today, the doctors had planned an eight-hour-long “slow, low-
efficiency daily dialysis” (SLEDD), an advanced technique that ensures
a reduction in blood pressure fluctuations. “One of the major problems
is the continuous fluctuation of his blood pressure. A normal dialysis
would have further complicated the problem; so we had to opt for
SLEDD,” a doctor said.
But the doctors had to stop 30 minutes early because Basu’s blood
pressure, despite the heavy doses of inotropes, resumed fluctuating,
Maity said. The target was to remove at least 1,000ml of fluid
(containing waste products) from Basu’s body but the process yielded
900ml.
“We are not satisfied with the outcome of the SLEDD. If everything
goes well, we will try another round tomorrow,” a doctor said.
Basu’s condition had worsened last night with his systolic blood
pressure (the upper figure) dipping below 100 (normal: 140). With no
improvement in his condition today, doctors stayed huddled in
discussions through the day and late into the night, repeatedly
checking the monitors that fed them updates on the functioning of
Basu’s vital organs.
As news of his worsening condition spread, VIPs from CPM general
secretary Prakash Karat to actor Amitabh Bachchan rushed to the
hospital. “As long as he (Basu) can fight, we have hope,” said Karat,
who came with wife and fellow politburo member Brinda.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100117/jsp/frontpage/story_11994718.jsp
Sid Harth
Communists since the middle of the 19th century have seen themselves
as upholders of a materialist view of the world. The material
conditions in which human beings live determine how they think and the
ideas they advocate. Matter precedes the mind. This is how the young
Karl Marx, in the 1840s, turned on their head the theories of his
mentor, G.W.F. Hegel, who had seen history as the unfolding of the
Idea. Marx declared in contrast that men make their own history
through struggle under conditions that the past has created. One vital
element in the making of those conditions was religion. Religion, Marx
asserted, in a passage often torn out of context, in the past had been
at the heart of man’s existence: “It was the sigh of the oppressed and
the oppressor.” Religion had alienated man from his true potential and
was thus the “opium of the masses”. Marx was too good a student of
human affairs to disregard religion. He saw it as something to be
transcended, not as a point of departure but as a point of arrival.
The profundity of Marx’s thoughts on this subject, as in many others,
has been utterly distorted by his ardent disciples who practised
communism. They saw religion as something to be destroyed and treated
with contempt. Practitioners of communism thus saw themselves not only
as dedicated atheists but also as being hostile to religion. In India,
the net result of this was the creation of a gulf between the beliefs
and practices of the common people and those of communists. Even
members of communist parties, especially those who have jumped on the
bandwagon of communism in Kerala and West Bengal and have little or no
ideological commitment, have been unable to abandon their faith and
their belief in god. This has created serious problems within the
organization of communist parties. Witness the confusion within the
Communist Party of India (Marxist). Following a controversy, the
general secretary of the CPI(M), Prakash Karat, had to issue a
“clarification” that there was no bar on believers in god joining the
party but party functionaries should not believe in god and religion.
This does not clarify anything. It only confirms the Orwellian
principle that double standards are embedded in communist practice.
A deeper intellectual problem lurks behind this confusion. There is a
deep-seated belief among communists that their ideology not only has
answers to everything but it is also always right. Communists have
made a method into an ideology. They are now unable to resolve the
problem of religion which is of such critical importance to the lives
of the poor whose cause communists seek to serve. No wonder Marx,
towards the end of his life, announced, “Thank God I am not a
communist.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100117/jsp/opinion/story_11992314.jsp
Sid Harth
Express News Service
Posted: Sunday , Jan 17, 2010 at 0233 hrs
Lucknow:
In a bid to garner support of people in Naxal-affected areas, the
Sonbhadra police and the district administration have decided to open
an intermediate college and an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in
the Machi area.
The area, located on the borders of Bihar, has been identified as the
most vulnerable place for the recruitment of youngsters in the Naxal
groups.
Preetinder Singh, Superintendent of Police of Sonbhadra, said: “The
area has already been finalised and the proposals have been sent to
the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs, seeking for
funds under the Special Infrastructure Plan.”
“We have been assured of the funds to raise the college building and
other infrastructure. Funds for ITI would be released later. The
decision to open the institutions was taken following the request from
locals,” Singh said. The SP made the announcement during a camp
organised at Dareb Township in Machi area on Saturday.
A team of doctors conducted a health check-up and distributed
medicines to over 4,000 locals at the camp. The policemen also
distributed 2,200 blankets and volleyball kits to the youths of seven
villages. Similar camps would be organised in different Naxal-affected
areas on January 20, 22 and 24.
Singh said: “We interacted with the tribal people and asked them about
the problems they face from Naxalites or if the local police ever
harass them. We have received complaints against the chowkidars of
some villages and we will probe the matter.”
“We have also selected a group of youths in the area who are graduates
or have passed Class XII for a professional training including driving
and computers at the Police Lines. The police would help in providing
them jobs in various private industries in Sonbhadra district,” the SP
said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Now--academic-institutes-to-fight-Naxalism-at-Machi/568201
Sid Harth
litigation plea
Aman Sethi
Police detain three witnesses to killings in Gompad village, ban
journalists from site
Police decline comment on veracity of claims made in petition filed by
Sodi Sambho and others
There is concern that the facts surrounding the Gompad killings might
never be known
Konta: The mystery surrounding the killing of nine Adivasis in Gompad
village in Dantewada district in October last year is deepening, with
the Chhattisgarh police detaining three more witnesses to the incident
and restricting all access to the area on the pretext of Operation
Green Hunt.
Operation Green Hunt is a catch-all phrase, used by the police and
media alike, for all major anti-naxal offensives since July 2009.
Total control
As previously reported by The Hindu, the Chhattisgarh police have
assumed total control over the movements of Sodi Sambho – one of
several witnesses in a Supreme Court petition that alleges that the 9
civilians were killed by the security forces.
On Friday, armed policemen and Special Police Officers (SPO) lined the
length of the highway from Dantewada town to Konta, the block
headquarters closest to Gompad, stopping vehicles and questioning
commuters. Travelling with local journalists Anil Mishra of Nayi
Duniya and Yashwant Yadav of Navbharat, this correspondent was
repeatedly detained along the route and told that Gompad village was
out of bounds as a major anti-naxal operation was underway. Non-
journalists were, however, let through.
Concerned that we might enter the village from Andhra Pradesh, we were
detained by SPOs for about 45 minutes on the Chhattisgarh-A.P. border
and allowed to proceed only after the intervention of Deputy Inspector-
General, Dantewada, S.R.P. Kalluri.
At present, the police have refused to comment on the veracity of the
claims made in the Supreme Court petition filed by Sodi and others.
“The Superintendent of Police of Dantewada has been told to initiate
an enquiry into the Gompad incident,” said T.J. Longkumer, Inspector-
General Police, Bastar.
However, witnesses to the killings insisted in interviews to The Hind
u that the police were involved in the early morning ‘sanitisation
operation’ and killed nine villagers (seven from Gompad and two from
nearby villages), including three women and a 12-year-old girl. “The
police also cut off the fingers of a two-year-old infant,” said one
witness speaking on condition of anonymity fearing police retribution.
“The police stabbed Madavi Venka [a victim] and then shot him
fatally,” said another witness, “All those killed were innocent
villagers with no involvement with the naxals.”
The witnesses were interviewed, via a translator, at a weekly bazaar
at Adralpalli on the Andhra Pradesh side of the border between the two
States. Due to the police cordon around Gompad village, witness
reports could not be verified independently.
The villagers also claimed that the police have detained Soyam Rama,
Soyam Dulla and Kattam Dulla, three witnesses whose testimonies could
prove crucial when the case comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court.
“All three men have been held at the police station at Konta for the
last one week,” said a Gompad villager. The Adivasis were picked up by
the police in the first week of January when they came to Dantewada
town for a public airing of grievances, the villagers said, an
assertion DIG Kalluri contests. “We have never detained these three
men,” he said. “They have never been taken into police custody.”
However, police sources speaking to The Hindu on background confirmed
that the three men were indeed held “for questioning” at the Konta
police station till January 14 but could not confirm their current
location. At present, their whereabouts are unknown.
Yet to be addressed
Police control over witnesses and restrictions on the movement of the
press have raised concerns that the facts surrounding the Gompad
killings might never be known. In another PIL petition pending before
the Supreme Court for the past three years, allegations of large-scale
killing of Adivasis and arson by the Salwa Judum and security forces
have yet to be addressed.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stories/2010011756401000.htm
Sid Harth
Shillong: Two tribal militants were killed on Saturday in a gunfight
with security forces in Songsak area bordering South Garo Hills and
West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. Two activists of Liberation
Achik Elite Force were killed and another injured in the gunfight ,
the police said.
The operation was continuing as the police suspect more militants
could be hiding there.
Meanwhile, Assam Police on Friday arrested a leader of ULFA from
Woodland Hospital in Shillong. Identified as Pradip Kalita, was
suspected to be a member of the 27th Battalion of the outfit. — PTI
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stories/2010011758530100.htm
Sid Harth
A stalwart, a great leader, says Advani
PTI
Describing veteran Communist leader Jyoti Basu as a stalwart, senior
BJP leader L.K. Advani on Sunday said the late Marxist was among the
greats. “He was a stalwart... a great leader. He held the CPM fort in
West Bengal for a long time,” Advani told reporters here.
“The Communist movement has been affected. Basu was in the line of
great leaders like E.M.S Namboodiripad, Bhupesh Gupta and Indrajit
Gupta,” he said.
“Our ideologies were different. Still, going by his greatness, I
respect him and pay my tributes,” Advani added.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article81498.ece
Sid Harth
PTI
PTI
Veteran Marxist and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who
died on Sunday after multiple organ failure in Kolkata.
Leaders cutting across the political spectrum on Sunday mourned the
death of veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu, describing him as a towering
personality and a powerful regional voice who had played crucial roles
in the national political scene.
President Pratibha Patil, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and BJP leader L.K. Advani said in his death, the
nation had lost an eminent statesman who had earned the unique
distinction of being the longest serving Chief Minister.
“During his political career he displayed his abilities as a leader of
the people, an able administrator and an eminent statesman,” Ms. Patil
said in her condolence message.
Vice President Ansari said the sagacity and leadership of the former
West Bengal Chief Minister “at both the State and national levels has
been a source of inspiration and guidance.”
Describing 95-year-old Basu as a powerful regional voice in the
national political scene, the Prime Minister said he had turned to the
veteran Marxist leader on many occasions for his advice on important
issues and the response was always pragmatic.
“In a political career spanning more than six decades, the veteran
communist leader steered his party to power in West Bengal, leaving a
legacy of uninterrupted rule by the Left Front that he forged through
his leadership and legendary skills in building consensus,” he said.
Mr. Advani, who was in Mumbai, said the late Marxist was among the
greats. “He was a stalwart... a great leader“.
While the Congress said Mr. Basu was one of the country’s “worthiest
sons”, BJP said he was one of the tallest contemporary leaders of
Indian politics.
In a condolence resolution, the CPI(M) said its veteran leader was a
Marxist who neither wavered in his
convictions nor was dogmatic in his approach, becoming a source of
inspiration for the Left movement in the country.
The party Polit Bureau said Mr. Basu, who joined the Communist Party
in 1946, played a significant role in the growth of the party in
Bengal and became a symbol of the Left, democratic and secular forces
in the country.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader A.B. Bardhan said Mr. Basu was
"fought to the end. We express our heartfelt sadness on his demise".
Senior BJP leader and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley
said Mr. Basu was a man "committed to the service of his people, his
ideology and a sense of idealism".
Recounting his close initmacy with Mr. Basu, Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee said, "He was a towering personality and perhaps in
contemporary politics, there was no other personality as much
charismatic as he was.”
Mr. Mukherjee also recalled the contribution of Mr. Basu in formation
of the first UPA government supported by Left in 2004. "In fact, he
was an architect of the first UPA government in 2004, which was
supported by the Left parties from outside.”
Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Mr. Basu "strode like a colossus on
the Indian political scene for several decades. He was a great
patriot, a great democrat and a great source of inspiration.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who was in Kathmandu, said,
"The country has lost a steadfast champion of the causes of
underprivileged."
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said an era has passed with the
death of Marxist Jyoti Basu and that no one can replace him.
Party leader Sitaram Yechury said Mr. Basu was a disciplined party
member who set an example for all by abiding by party's decision which
rejected a proposal to make him Prime Minister in the 1990s though he
was in favour of it.
As messages of grief poured from all over the country, the All India
Forward Bloc described the passing away of Mr. Basu as a “a big and
irreparable loss... for the entire Left, working class and progressive
movement of the country.”
CPI national secretary D. Raja said the death of Mr. Basu is a great
loss for the entire communist movement as well as for the nation.
Describing Mr. Basu as one of the greatest communist leaders, the
country ever produced, Raja said the CPI(M) patriarch was an
"architect of modern Left politics in the post independence India. He
was a great legacy, a history by himself."
While Janta Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav said Mr. Basu's
contribution to Indian polity is unparallelled, Lok Janshakti Party
chief Ram Vilas Paswan said his passing away marked the end of a
chapter of India's political struggle for empowerment of the weaker
sections.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Tripura Chief Minister Manik
Sarkar, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi issued separate messages condoling Mr.
Basu's death.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article81553.ece?homepage=true
Sid Harth
The end of an era
Glimpses into the life of Jyoti Basu, the Marxist colossus who strode
the country's political scene for over five decades, the longest
serving Chief Minister of West Bengal for 23 years, and who commanded
respect across the Indian political spectrum
Jyoti Basu greets visitors on his 96th birthday celebrations at his
residence in Koltata on July 8, 2009. Photo: AP
Image: 02 of 10
Jyoti Basu and N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu at Indira Bhavan,
Salt Lake, Kolkata, September 21, 2008. Photo: Special Arrangement
Image: 03 of 10
A file photo of the veteran CPI-M leader, Jyoti Basu, arriving at the
party headquarters in Kolkata to attend a meeting on September 14,
2007. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury
Image: 04 of 10
With Jyoti Basu unable to take the rigours of direct campaigning due
to his advanced age, the CPI(M) put up hoardings with images of the
party patriarch at vantage points in Kolkata. The slogan 'Dilli Chalo'
beneath the poster, was used by the Third Front Alliance. Photo:
Sushanta Patronobish.
Image: 05 of 10
Jyoti Basu launching the website of "Pather Panchali " on his 95th
birthday at his residence “Indira Bhavan”, Salt Lake, Kolkata, in
2008. Photo: Sushanta Patronobish
Image: 06 of 10
Jyoti Basu being conferred the Degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa
for his contribution to the nation, by the Governor of West Bengal,
Gopal Krishna Gandhi, in April 2007. The Governor is also the
Chancellor of the Calcutta University. Photo: Sushantha Patronobish
Image: 07 of 10
Jyoti Basu with Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group. File photo: Parth
Sanyal
Image: 08 of 10
CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit and Jyoti Basu releasing
a book on "History of the Communist Movements in India", during the
Eighteenth Congress of Communist Party Of India (Marxist) in New Delhi
in April 2005. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
Image: 09 of 10
Jyoti Basu being taken to a local hospital after he complained of
bronchial congestion in Kolkata on January 1, 2009. Photo: PTI
Image: 10 of 10
Sid Harth
Jyoti Basu dies of multi-organ failure
PTI
Jyoti Basu, who strode the political arena like a colossus for over
six decades, died here on Sunday of multi-organ failure after being
struck by pneumonia 17 days ago.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose, who together with Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee rushed to the hospital, broke down while
announcing “I have a sad announcement to make. Jyoti Basu is no more
with us.”
Mr. Basu’s personal physician Dr. Ajit Kumar Maity said that he
breathed his last at 11:47 a.m. at the AMRI Hospital where he was
admitted with pneumonia on January 1.
The former West Bengal Chief Minister was 95 and is survived by son
Chandan. His wife Kamal pre-deceased him four years ago.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who was in the city rushed to the
hospital, and said “We have just learnt that Jyoti Basu, formally
known as Jyoti Babu, has passed away.
“He strode like a colossus on the Indian political scene for several
decades. He was a great patriot, a great democrat. He lived a full
life,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
“For the last fortnight, he suffered a lot. The West Bengal government
has provided him with the best medical care in the country. We are
deeply sad at his passing away.I offer my sincere condolence to his
family and the people of West Bengal.
A political legend, Mr. Basu became the longest serving chief minister
of West Bengal for 23 years from 1997 at the head of CPI(M)-headed
Left Front government.
Mr. Basu had suffered multi-organ failure and was put on a temporary
pacemaker late last night.
He had been put on Slow Low Efficiency Daily Dialysis (SLEDD), but it
was stopped after he was unable to tolerate it beyond seven-and-a-half
hours on Saturday.
Mr. Basu’s son, Chandan, daughter-in-law Rakhi, grand daughters Payel,
Doyel and Koyel were at the hospital.
Left Front ministers, Pratim Chatterjee, Kiranmoy Nanda, Sudarshan
Roychowdhury, Ranjit Kundu were at AMRI.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) leader Brinda
Karat, veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh and a host of Left
Party leaders visited the hospital.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat was among other leaders who
visited the hospital.
Mr. Basu’s body will be taken to funeral parlour Peace Haven at 2:00
p.m. from the hospital, party leader Shyamal Chakraborty said.
He said people were flocking to the hospital after learning of Mr.
Basu’s death. “But there are other patients here who will be
inconvenienced if the body is kept here. So we have decided to take
his body to Peace Haven.”
Other arrangements would be decided later, he said.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article81477.ece
Sid Harth
A political legend
PTI
As a young barrister who embraced Communism, Jyoti Basu, forsook the
barrister’s gown to emerge as a charismatic leader, who strode the
Indian political scene for over five decades like a colossus, and was
respected across the spectrum.
A political legend, Mr. Basu became the longest serving Chief Minister
of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977 at the head of CPI(M)-headed
Left Front government.
When coalition politics offered him the chance to become Prime
Minister of the United Front government in 1996, his party declined
the offer. He later described his party’s decision of not accepting
the prime ministership as a ‘historic blunder’.
An astute politician, able administrator, reformist and a record
setter in many respects, he had the distinction of holding membership
of the West Bengal assembly uninterruptedly since 1946, save a break
in 1972.
Steering the Left Front government, a coalition of Left parties,
barring SUCI, since 1977, Mr. Basu put into practice the concept of
decentralisation of power right down to the block level — by
introducing Panchayati Raj and effectively implementing land reforms.
Even late premier Rajiv Gandhi had lauded Mr. Basu’s role and convened
a National Conference of Panchayati Raj in 1989.
Giving the state a new industrial policy, Mr. Basu who earned the
favour of late chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy as early as in the
late 50s for being ‘effectively vocal’ as Leader of the Opposition,
raised his voice for restructuring Centre-State relations that finally
led to formation of the Sarkaria Commission in the late 80s.
It was his political foresight that brought together all like-minded
parties on a single platform to provide a third alternative to
Congress and BJP in the National Front-Left Front combine in the late
1980s and 1990s.
Mr. Basu was born into an upper middle-class Bengali family in Kolkata
in 1914. His father Nishikanta Basu, a doctor, hailed from the village
of Barodi in Narayangunj district now in Bangladesh.
Mr. Basu studied at St. Xavier’s Collegiate School in Kolkata and
graduated from Presidency College with an honours degree from the Arts
Faculty in 1935 and subsequently travelled to the United Kingdom to
study law.
Introduced to the Communist Party of Great Britain through Bhupesh
Gupta, Mr. Basu involved himself with the India League, the communist
party and the London Majlis.
On returning to India in 1940 after qualifying for the Bar, he became
a full-time activist of Communist Party of India. In 1944, Mr. Basu
became involved in trade union activities.
He was married to Kamal Basu who predeceased him.
He joined the electoral arena by humbling Congress stalwart Humayun
Kabir from the erstwhile railway constituency in 1946.
Mr. Basu went underground when the Communist Party was banned in 1948
and was jailed several times during Congress rule in West Bengal. He
was imprisoned in 1953 for spearheading a movement against a hike in
tram fare. Mr. Basu had wrested the Baranagore seat from then
Education Minister Roy Harendranath Chowdhury in 1952.
Though 28 communist candidates were elected to the assembly that year,
the then Speaker refused to accord Mr. Basu the status of the leader
of the opposition. The recognition finally came in 1957 when Mr. Basu
was re-elected from Baranagore constituency, the seat which, he
retained till 1972 when he suffered the only electoral defeat in his
political career.
He emerged as an influential member of the CPI(M) after the 1964 split
in the Communist Party of India. Mr. Basu, in a letter entitled ‘Save
the party from revisionism and dogmatic extremists’ written from jail
in 1963, a year before CPI(M) was formed, was initially against its
creation saying “We have to continue our ideological struggle against
Dange’s politics of revisionism. It will not be right to split the
party.” The contents of Mr. Basu’s letter was revealed in a book
’Communist movement in Bengal, Documents and Related Facts’ published
by the CPI(M).
In 1967 and 1969, Mr. Basu was deputy chief minister of the United
Front governments in West Bengal. Eight years later, he became chief
minister in 1977 and remained in the post for 23 without break.
In the 1980s, he played a key role in convening a meeting of non-
Congress chief ministers in Kolkata to raise their voice against the
“step-motherly attitude” of the Congress government at the Centre in
close liaison with late N.T. Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh and late
Ramakrishna Hegde of Karnataka.
Mr. Basu’s political acumen was revealed again when he succeeded in
his efforts in late 1985 to convince late premier Rajiv Gandhi of the
utility of forming a hill council to restore peace in strife-torn
Darjeeling where the GNLF under Subhas Ghising had waged a violent
agitation for a separate state.
Initially opposed to economic liberalisation policy of the P.V.
Narasimha Rao government, Mr. Basu initiated formation of an
“alternative” policy to woo investors. He also went abroad to attract
foreign investments in the face of strong criticism by his own party
comrades.
Known for his pragmatic approach to political and economic issues, Mr.
Basu was the main advocate for the initial participation of the Tatas
in the Haldia Petrochemical Complex which was among the first major
industrial initiatives during the Left Front rule. Mr. Basu was among
the CPI(M) leaders who fully supported his successor Buddhadeb
Bhattacherjee’s initiatives for private-capital driven
industrialisation. Mr. Basu said, “We want capital, both foreign and
domestic. After all we are working in a capitalist system. Socialism
is not possible now.”
Mr. Basu resigned from chief ministership in 2000 for health reasons.
The 18th Congress of CPI(M), held in Delhi in 2005, re-elected Mr.
Basu to its Politburo although he had pleaded to be allowed to retire
from it.
On September 13, 2006, Mr. Basu entreated CPI(M) to allow his
retirement due to his age but was turned down. General Secretary
Prakash Karat said the party wanted Mr. Basu to continue until its
2008 Congress, at which point it would reconsider. At the party’s 19th
Congress in April 2008, Mr. Basu was not included in the Politburo,
although he remained a member of the Central Committee, and was
designated as a Special Invitee to the Politburo.
Mr. Basu was also close to Congress leaders Indira Gandhi for whom he
had high regards and Rajiv Gandhi, and was one of the CPI(M) stalwarts
to prod his party to extend outside support to a Congress-led
coalition government at the Centre after the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article81481.ece
Sid Harth
Basu, a symbol of Left: CPI(M)
PTI
PTI CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury pays floral tribute to former West
Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu at the party office in New Delhi on
Sunday.
The CPI(M) on Sunday said its veteran leader Jyoti Basu was a Marxist
who neither wavered in his convictions nor was dogmatic in his
approach, becoming a source of inspiration for the Left movement in
the country.
In its condolence resolution, the party Polit Bureau said Mr. Basu,
who joined the Communist Party in 1946, played a significant role in
the growth of the party in Bengal and leading the government and
became a symbol of the Left, democratic and secular forces in the
country.
The CPI(M) also noted that Mr. Basu was a Marxist who never wavered in
his convictions in the backdrop of the fall of Soviet Union and
setbacks to socialism.
“He provided the leadership along with his colleagues in Polit Bureau
to make a reappraisal of the experience of building socialism and to
pinpoint the errors and to correct wrong notions and understandings
while remaining true to Marxism-Leninism.
“He was a Marxist who was not dogmatic and continued to learn from his
vast experience in charting out the course for the party,” the
resolution read out by Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said.
Expressing profound grief at his demise, it said Mr. Basu’s role in
the government in supporting the struggle for implementation of land
reforms and not allowing the police to be used against workers and
peasants’ struggle were notable.
Mr. Basu belonged to the leadership which steered the party through
the difficult says of “semi-fascist terror” in Bengal in the 1970s,
the resolution said.
The resolution remembered his contribution during his 23-year-old
stint as Chief Minister, saying his government embarked on land
reforms on an unprecedented scale besides instituting panchayati raj
system.
“One has to recall how he dealt with the situation after Indira
Gandhi’s assassination when violence against Sikhs broke out in
various parts of the country, but nothing was allowed to happen in
Bengal. Similarly, he dealt firmly with efforts to instigate trouble
after the demolition of Babri Masjid,” it said.
Mr. Basu as Chief Minister and a Left leader played an important role
in pushing for restructuring Centre-State relations and rallying other
Chief Ministers and political leaders for the cause.
On the political front, the resolution said, he played a prominent
role in bringing together Left and secular parties against the
Congress in 1980s and later against the BJP in the 1990s.
In an apparent reference to his opinion of a party leader becoming a
Prime Minister in the 1990s and CPI(M) turning it down, the party
said, “he emerged as the pre-eminent and most popular leader of the
party but he always worked as a disciplined member of the party
setting an example for all.”
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article81530.ece?homepage=true
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 13:20:02
New Delhi, Jan 17 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the staunchest
anti-Communist force in the country, Sunday mourned the death of
Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, describing him as a ‘role model for Indian
politics’.
In a moving tribute, senior BJP leader Arun Jatiley told reporters
here that Basu, who was West Bengal’s chief minister for 23 long
years, was one of the ‘tallest leaders’ in Indian politics with ‘high
credibility’.
‘Jyoti Basu was unquestionably one of the tallest contemporary leaders
in India… He was devoted to his ideology and played the longest
innings in Indian politics,’ Jaitley said.
The BJP leader said Basu was ‘a politician of high credibility. Our
party deeply mourns his death. We pay great tribute to him. He is one
of the leaders from whom we all have learned something.
‘The strength of Indian democracy is that it gives you space for
differences. Despite differences there are always leaders who are
opposed to you, (yet) who have admirable qualities,’ Jaitley added.
‘He was a role model for Indian politics. His death is a loss for
Indian polity.’
http://www.vamban.com/basu-was-a-role-model-for-indian-politics-bjp/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 17:05:02
Agartala, Jan 17 – The Tripura state committee of the Communist Party
of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday cancelled all party programmes and
rallies and decided to fly the party flag half-mast for next three
days to mourn the death of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu.
‘Basu was a legendary leader. In future Indian politics, his absence
would be felt,’ said Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who is also
a CPI-M politburo member.
A delegation of nine top CPI-M leaders led by Sarkar would attend the
condolence rally and cremation ceremony in Kolkata Tuesday.
Party leaders held an emergency meeting Sunday and expressed profound
grief over Basu’s death.
Basu had last visited the state Feb 14, 2005.
http://www.vamban.com/tripura-cpi-m-cancels-mass-rally-mourns-basu/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 15:33:01
New Delhi, Jan 17 – Expressing ‘profound grief’ at the passing away of
its seniormost leader Jyoti Basu, the Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) Sunday said he was a Marxist who was not dogmatic.
‘Jyoti Basu was a Marxist who never wavered in his convictions. He was
a Marxist who was not dogmatic and continued to learn from his vast
experience in charting out the course for the party,’ the CPI-M
politburo said in a statement.
The party, while saluting the memory of its ‘beloved departed
comrade’, said: ‘We pledge to carry forward his cause and work.’
‘The Left movement in the country was fortunate in having such an
accomplished and dedicated leader at the helm of affairs in West
Bengal and in the leadership of the CPI-M for such a long time. His
precious legacy is there for all of us to cherish and nurture,’ the
politburo said.
‘We convey our heartfelt condolences to his son, Chandan Basu, grand
daughters and other family members,’ it added.
http://www.vamban.com/basu-was-a-marxist-who-was-not-dogmatic-cpi-m/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 12:30:02
Kolkata, Jan 17 – He was a Marxist to the core who was equally at home
with bourgeois democracy and capitalist ideas. If destiny had been on
his side, Jyoti Basu would have become India’s prime minister in 1996.
But that was not to be, thanks to his dogmatic Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M) which ruled that no one from its ranks could
head a multi-party regime that would not be able to implement Marxist
programmes.
Basu swallowed the diktat silently. But within months he questioned
the wisdom of fellow Stalinists and described the party’s decision not
to form the centre-Left United Front government as a ‘historic
blunder’.
That perhaps was the only time the very ‘bhadralok’, or gentleman,
Basu broke the CPI-M’s strict rules of discipline. He got away with it
because he was the prima donna of Indian Communism, a product of
aristocracy who embraced Marx in London and became the longest serving
chief minister in the country.
By the time he gave up the reins of West Bengal in 2000 citing health
grounds, Basu had been the chief minister for an incredible 23
uninterrupted years. He was widely respected across the political
spectrum. Many a prime minister consulted him on matters of national
importance.
Of course he had his critics. But for someone married to an ideology
that has had few takers in India, he was one of the most successful
politicians in the world’s largest democracy.
Born July 8, 1914, in Kolkata, the son of a doctor was schooled in
Loreto and St. Xavier’s. He graduated from the Presidency College of
Kolkata with an honours in English in 1935.
He then studied law in London where he came in contact with the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the alma mater of many an
Indian Communist.
Basu’s early associates included the veteran British Communists Harry
Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt and Ben Bradley. In London, he joined the
India League and the Federation of Indian Students in Great Britain.
On returning to India, Basu joined the then undivided Communist Party
of India (CPI) and in 1944, three years before the British Raj ended,
started working among railway workers.
He got into electoral politics in 1946, getting elected to the Bengal
Legislative Assembly.
Winning elections then became a habit for Basu. After independence, he
was repeatedly elected to the West Bengal legislature, starting in
1952.
When the CPI split in 1964 parallel to the Sino-Soviet break-up, Basu
became one of the nine founding politburo members of the more radical
CPI-M.
West Bengal was in turmoil in the late 1960s, with a section of the
CPI-M revolting in a small West Bengal village known as Naxalbari and
igniting a bloody Maoist movement.
Two shaky and shortlived governments took office in West Bengal in
1967 and 1969, and Basu was the deputy chief minister — his first
stint as an administrator.
It was in June 1977 that Basu became the West Bengal chief minister
heading a multi-party Left Front government, a post he himself decided
to give up almost a quarter century later.
Under Basu’s leadership, the CPI-M expanded its social base in
villages. His government brought about sweeping agrarian reforms,
devolved power to rural bodies or panchayats and undertook rapid
agricultural development.
The Marxists soon developed a well-oiled election machinery that
ensured victory in one election after another, stunning friends and
foes alike and becoming a rarity of sorts in democratic politics
around the world.
Basu led the Marxists to power five times in a row in West Bengal.
Along with his scholarly finance minister Ashok Mitra, he vigorously
sought more powers for the states. He also played a key role in
bringing together non-Congress state governments and parties in the
1980s.
He took an active part in the confabulations in the run up to the
formation of non-Congress governments in 1989, 1996, 1997 and 2004, in
the process becoming a national figure.
His tenure as chief minister was not without allegations of
corruption, especially against his industrialist son. But these
remained just allegations.
While the agrarian reforms in West Bengal were hailed as a model
across the country, Basu was widely faulted for his poor showing in
various other sectors including industry, education and health.
Even after relinquishing office as chief minister in 2000, Basu
continued to play a big role in the CPI-M and Indian politics till
repeated bouts of illness finally took their toll.
http://www.vamban.com/jyoti-basu-marxist-who-almost-became-indias-pm-obituary/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 12:36:02
Kolkata, Jan 17 – Jyoti Basu, who died here Sunday, resigned from
active politics in 2000 but continued to guide the communist movement
in India.
Following is a chronology of his life:
- Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), July 8, 1914.
- Graduated from Presidency College with honours in English. He did
his Bar at Law from London where he got introduced to Marxism and
politics.
- Returned to India in 1940. Joined Communist Party of India (CPI).
- In 1944 he was a functionary of Bengal railway workers’ union.
- In 1946 he was elected to the Bengal legislative assembly, defeating
Humayun Kabir of Congress.
- He won from Baranagar assembly constituency in 1952, 1957, 1962,
1967, 1969 and 1971. He lost the seat in the 1972 snap polls.
- In 1964, he helped set up the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-
M).
- In 1967, he became deputy chief minister in a coalition government
in Bengal.
- Became chief minister of West Bengal June 21, 1977 and headed the
Left Front government till Nov 6, 2000.
- Narrowly missed a chance to become India’s prime minister in 1996
after his party’s veto. He later called the party decision a ‘historic
blunder’.
- In 2000, he announced his retirement from active politics and
stepped down as chief minister on health grounds.
- In 2004, he played a key role to stitch an alliance between the Left
parties and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
http://www.vamban.com/chronology-of-jyoti-basus-life/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 16:26:01
New Delhi, Jan 17 – Communist veteran Jyoti Basu was a leader for all
political parties and his personality was larger than that of prime
ministers’, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former railway minister
Lalu Prasad said.
‘He was not just a leader of the communist party. He was leader of all
of us… all political parties,’ Prasad said. ‘You will not find a
leader like him.’
‘His personality was bigger than prime ministers’. He was (a) leader
of the people. His contribution in nation building is immense,’ Lalu
Prasad said over telephone to news channel CNN-IBN.
A charismatic leader, Basu served as West Bengal chief minister from
June 1977 to November 2000, heading five successive Left Front
governments. He died Sunday at the age of 95.
In 1996, the centre-Left United Front asked Basu to lead the central
government as prime minister. But the CPI-M declined the offer saying
it would not head a national government whose policies it could not
control.
http://www.vamban.com/basus-personality-bigger-than-prime-ministers-lalu-prasad/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 16:46:02
New Delhi, Jan 17 – Several party leaders, workers and sympathisers of
the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) gathered at the party
headquarters here to pay their tributes to communist patriarch Jyoti
Basu who died at Kolkata Sunday morning.
As the news broke, party workers, leaders including politburo members
Sitaram Yechury and S. Ramachandran Pillai, activists of the Students
Federation of India and other party organisations gathered at A.K.
Gopalan Bhavan at Bhai Vir Singh Marg here to pay their tributes to
the veteran leader.
‘His goal was to provide relief to people and knew what they actually
wanted. His absence would be felt,’ Yechury told reporters.
Basu, who had a record 23-year stint as chief minister of West Bengal
– the longest seen in any Indian state – and almost became the
country’s prime minister in 1996, died at 11.47 a.m. at a private
hospital at Kolkata 16 days after being admitted for pneumonia. A
widower, he is survived by his only son Chandan.
A photograph of Basu was also put up near the reception area for
visitors to pay tributes. The party flag at the headquarters was
lowered to half mast and party workers donned black bands. The office
received a number of condolence calls and messages as the news was
received.
Media persons also thronged the headquarters and nearly half of the
road was blocked with broadcasting vans.
Sirajuddin, a Delhi university student and SFI member, told IANS: ‘The
nation has lost a great leader who stood for his principles. He was
offered to become the prime minister of India, but being a man of
principles, he passed the opportunity.’
‘We would organise a condolence meeting in the Delhi University in the
next few days,’ he said.
Another SFI member, Robert Rahman said: ‘He was a great leader and
someone who championed the cause of working class, and peasantry. He
was an unmatchable leader.’
http://www.vamban.com/leaders-sympathisers-gather-at-cpi-ms-office-to-mourn-basus-death/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 17:02:02
Kolkata, Jan 17 – Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, who died here
Sunday, was a man of strong views and never hesitated to speak his
mind. Here are some of his comments on his life and politics:
On childhood:
‘My mother came from an upper middle-class family, they were well-to-
do landowners. My father, Nishikanta Basu, came from a relatively
lower middle-class background.’
‘I was 10 years old. Talk of revolutionaries and the fight for
independence was in the air.’
In London:
‘I was initiated to international politics in London. Entire Europe
was restive. Fascist Mussolini had wrested power in Italy.’
‘We formed the `London Majlis’ and I was its first secretary. The idea
was to generate public opinion for the cause of Indian independence
and collect subscriptions.’
On return to India:
‘Marriage was being discussed. I did not attach importance to this. I
knew there was a long and difficult political agenda ahead. Anyway, I
got married.’
Political life:
‘It never occurred to me that I would one day become an MLA, but the
party thought otherwise. I had to abide by its directives.’
‘My very first election as a candidate gave me a taste of what
bourgeoisie elections were all about. It was baptism by fire. But
all’s well that ends well.’
On undivided CPI:
‘Raids and arrests were routine. Between September 1948 and January
1949, I worked openly in trade unions, maintaining the communication
links with our leadership in hiding.’
Emergency rule:
‘(Indira) Gandhi was scared. Her authoritarianism knew no limits. Thus
she chose the option which all dictators faced with a critical
situation coupled with the fear of losing power usually do: she opted
to usurp all the rights of the people.’
Left Front government:
‘It was exactly at 10.30 a.m. on June 21, 1977, that the first Left
Front ministry was sworn in… Land reforms were our topmost priority.’
On politics:
‘I have worked for the people of this country and in the process, been
witness to many twists and turns of history,’
On Sino-Indian war:
‘India and China went to war over the border dispute in 1962. The
reactionary forces led by the Congress cried for war and inflamed
passions. We said that talks were the only way; the reactionaries
called us `anti-nationals’ for this.’
Centre-state ties:
‘We kept up our sustained campaign for a review of centre-state ties
and it was because of this pressure that the government of (Indira)
Gandhi was forced to set up the Sarkaria commission on June 9, 1983.’
On Operation Bluestar (June 1984):
‘If the centre had been keen and serious about a political settlement
to the Punjab problem, then this operation could have been avoided.’
On Babri Masjid razing:
‘On December 6 (1992), barbarians demolished Babri Masjid. We stood
dishonoured in front of the entire world.’
(Excerpts from ‘Memoirs-A Political Autobiography: Jyoti Basu’,
National Book Agency Pvt Ltd, Kolkata)
http://www.vamban.com/jyoti-basu-on-his-life-and-politics/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 17:23:02
Kolkata, Jan 17 – Jyoti Basu faced lot of economic hurdles during his
long years of struggle as communist leader before becoming chief
minister, and fish was a luxury in his kitchen, former West Bengal
chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray said.
‘At the beginning of his career as a communist, he had faced lots of
economic hurdles. I have seen how simple a life he led whenever I
visited his house. I have seen his wife cooking simple food… seldom I
found them cooking fish or meat,’ Ray, who was Basu’s contemporary,
said.
‘His wife (boudi) used to tell me ‘Apnar pagol bondhu ke ektu bolun ki
bhabe sansar cholchhe’ (Please tell your crazy friend how I run the
household),’ said Ray, the last Congress chief minister of the state
(1972-1977) and a grandson of freedom fighter Chitta Ranjan Das.
Basu used to get Rs.250 monthly as a legislator’s salary in those
days, he said.
Ray, 89, was a close friend of Basu for over six decades despite
mostly being political adversaries.
‘It was a big loss. We had been friends for long. Our political fight
never figured in our friendship,’ he said.
Ray twice visited — on Jan 11 and Jan 16 — the private hospital where
Basu was admitted Jan 1 following an attack of pneumonia.
http://www.vamban.com/basu-had-a-long-struggle-as-a-communist-s-s-ray/
Sid Harth
Posted by Vamban on Jan 17th, 2010 16:41:02
Hyderabad, Jan 17 – Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, Telugu Desam Party
(TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu and other top politicians from
Andhra Pradesh Sunday condoled the death of Marxist leader Jyoti Basu.
Rosaiah said in the death of Basu, the nation has lost a towering
politician who ruled the hearts of people, especially the people of
West Bengal. ‘Jyoti Basu’s death is not only a loss to CPI-M but it is
a loss to the nation,’ Rosaiah said.
Former chief minister and TDP president Chandrababu Naidu said the
death of the Marxist patriarch was a personal loss to him. He recalled
that he worked closely with Jyoti Basu in the National Front. ‘I had
an opportunity to work with Mr Jyoti Basu and I always held him in
high esteem,’ said Naidu.
State Congress chief D. Srinivas, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief
K. Chandrasekhara Rao, Praja Rajyam Party chief K. Chiranjeevi, who
had called on the veteran leader last week, BJP state president
Bandaru Dattatreya, Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary K.
Narayana and Communist Party of India (CPI-M) state secretary B.V.
Raghavulu also mourned the death of Basu.
http://www.vamban.com/rosaiah-chandrababu-naidu-condole-basus-death/
bademiyansubhanallah
STAFF WRITER 19:39 HRS IST
Lucknow, Jan 17 (PTI) A naxalite carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his
head was today arrested along with his accomplice following an
encounter in Sonbhadra district, police said.
Girdhar Gopal alias Gope, a hardcore naxalite, was arrested along with
his accomplice Gorakhnath Yadav, a native of Jharkhand, from Kon area
of Sonbhadra district in the wee hours this morning, they said.
A double barrel gun and cartridges were seized from their possession.
Superintendent of Police Pritinder Singh said Gope was facing charges
in nine cases, including that of murder and arson while Yadav is an
accused in four cases.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/472893_Hardcore-naxal-held-in-UP-s-Sonbhadra
bademiyansubhanallah
STAFF WRITER 19:17 HRS IST
New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) RSS mourned the death of CPI(M) patriarch and
former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, describing him as a
"legendary Communist leader" and a "committed and principled
politician".
"The news of the demise of the legendary Communist leader and former
Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu has saddened the countrymen.
Basu had led a life committed to Communism Marxism (sic)," RSS General
Secretary Bhayyaji Joshi said in his condolence message.
"In his long years of political struggle he had vigorously pursued his
ideology, when in power and out of it," he added.
RSS, the fountainhead of the right-wing Sangh Parivar which includes
the BJP, is ideologically opposed to CPI(M) and other Left parties.
"In Basu's death the country has lost a committed and principled
politician. On behalf of the RSS, I convey my heartfelt condolences to
his personal and ideological family," Joshi said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/472853_RSS-mourns-Jyoti-Basu-s-death
bademiyansubhanallah
STAFF WRITER 19:57 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 17 (PTI) Former chief minister Jyoti Basu's body will be
taken from funeral parlour 'Peace Haven' on Tuesday morning to the
state secretariat, Assembly and the party headquarters before its
final journey to the SSKM hospital where it will be handed over to the
authorities there.
"Basu's body will be handed over to the SSKM hospital as per his
wish," said CPI(M) state committee member Rabin Deb.
Basu had pledged his body with 'Ganadarpan', an NGO, in the city
several years back, party sources said.
CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said after a special state
secretariat meeting that the body would be kept at the state Assembly
premises for four hours (10.30 AM to 2.30 PM) to enable people to pay
their last respects on Tuesday.
Leaders of the country and from abroad will pay their last respects to
Basu at the Assembly premises, he said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/472918_Jyoti-Basu-s-last-journey-to-end-at-SSKM-hospital
bademiyansubhanallah
STAFF WRITER 18:51 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 17 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee today said in the death of Jyoti Basu, the country had
lost a great leader and the Left and democratic movement suffered a
severe blow.
"He was our guardian," Bhattacharjee said in his condolence statement
in front of reporters at the party headquarters in Alimuddin street.
Bhattacharjee said, "We are deeply saddened by the death of our
revered leader Jyoti Basu known as a living legend."
Basu, he said, was respected by all sections of the people, both home
and abroad. "He will be ever remembered for his contribution to the
country".
Bhattacharjee said Basu had been at the forefront of communist
movement since the beginning of 1940. He played a very significant
role in organising the Left and democratic movement all over the
country.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/472798_Basu-s-death-a-blow-to-Left--democratic-movement--CM
bademiyansubhanallah
STAFF WRITER 18:58 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 17 (PTI) Former chief minister Jyoti Basu's body will be
taken out from funeral parlour 'Peace Haven' at 9.30 AM on Tuesday to
be taken to the state secretariat Writers' Buildings at 10 AM.
The body will be kept at the state Assembly premises for four hours
(10.30 AM to 2.30 PM) to enable the people to pay their last respects,
state CPI(M) secretary Biman Bose said.
Leaders of the country and from abroad, including Bangladesh will pay
their last respects to Basu at the Assembly premises, he said.
The body will then be taken to party headquarters for one hour at
Alimuddin street at 3 pm and will take the final journey from there to
the state-run SSKM hospital, he said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/472802_Jyoti-Basu-s-last-journey-on-Tuesday
bademiyansubhanallah
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, January 17, 2010
First Published: 20:06 IST(17/1/2010)
Last Updated: 20:13 IST(17/1/2010)
President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday
led the nation in mourning the death of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti
Basu. Tributes poured in from politicians across the country.
While Patil said "the nation has lost a veteran and eminent public
figure," Manmohan Singh said Basu was a politician to whom he often
turned for "sagacious advice".
Basu was a leader "who displayed his abilities as a leader of the
people, an able administrator and eminent statesman", the president
said in a statement.
"In the years after he relinquished the chief ministership, he
continued to be looked upon as an elder statesman, whose advice was
sought by many political leaders in the state," she added.
The 95-year-old leader died in Kolkata Sunday after a prolonged
illness.
In a message to Jyoti Basu's son Chandan, Manmohan Singh said: "He was
a powerful regional voice in the national political scene and helped
to strengthen Indian federalism... He was a man of great integrity
with a deep commitment to secular values."
"I have personally had a very long association with Basu. On many
occasions in my career, I turned to him for his sagacious advice on
all matters, whether they related to West Bengal or to issues of
national importance," he added.
Vice President Hamid Ansari said Basu had left behind a void that
would be difficult to fill. "His sagacity and leadership at both the
state and the national level have been a source of inspiration and
guidance," Ansari said in a statement.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that Basu led for several
years expressed "profound grief", saying he was a Marxist who was not
dogmatic.
"Jyoti Basu was a Marxist who never wavered in his convictions. He was
a Marxist who was not dogmatic and continued to learn from his vast
experience in charting out the course for the party," the CPI-M
politburo said.
"There will be none like Jyoti Basu again," was how CPI-M general
secretary Prakash Karat Sunday saluted a man he prevented from
becoming the prime minister in 1996.
Karat, who influenced the CPI-M to block Basu from taking charge of
the United Front government in 1996, said that the former West Bengal
chief minister "was a great leader of the CPI-M, the Left movement and
India. With his passing away, an era has passed".
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja paid glowing tributes to
the Marxist patriarch, saying he could have proved to be a great prime
minister.
"He (Basu) proved that the coalition of Left parties would work
successfully and serve the people greatly. He could have proved to be
a great prime minister also," Raja said.
Former Lok Sabha speaker and Communist leader Somnath Chatterjee said
he had lost someone like his father.
"When things started to go bad (in Left front), he was sad. He was sad
about what happened with me. I used to consult him on all matters. For
the second time, I have lost somebody like my father," said an
emotional Chatterjee.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he would miss a well-wisher.
"In his death, I lost a great well-wisher, the country has lost an
able administrator, an outstanding parliamentarian and a charismatic
political leader," Mukherjee told reporters.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee called for a 72-hour mourning in West
Bengal.
"He was the first and last chapter of the Communist movement in
India," she said after emerging out of the AMRI hospital in Kolkata.
"He (Basu) will be remembered for his political achievements because
of his pioneering role in the country's Left movement."
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the staunchest anti-Communist force
in the country, mourned the death of the Marxist leader, describing
him as a "role model for Indian politics".
In a moving tribute, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley told reporters
here that Basu, who was West Bengal's chief minister for 23 long
years, was one of the "tallest leaders" in Indian politics with "high
credibility".
"He was devoted to his ideology and played the longest innings in
Indian politics," Jaitley said.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in Kolkata: "He was a
colossus who straddled India's political scene for many decades. Not
only the leader of West Bengal, but of India. He was a great patriot,
great democrat, great parliamentarian and great source of inspiration.
He served the people of India to the best," he said.
Former prime minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee said
Basu's demise had "ended a chapter in the country's politics".
Comments
Ranjeet 7:28 am
yes, he was capable of being a prime minister. he can't be compared
with Chandrashekhar,Devegawda, and Raoi
chirag goel7:26 am
The leader was indeed an eminent figure who kept the torch of marxism
enlightened when it was flickering in the major parts of the world.
With the death of such a leader, there shall be a dramatic change in
the political scenario of West Bengal.
momin7:24 am
Mr.Jyoti Basu was the true leader of the country,
ashim7:22 am
Jyoti basu having the capacity of being prime minister, will all
agree ?
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Nation-mourns-Jyoti-Basu-s-death/H1-Article1-498569.aspx
bademiyansubhanallah
justice", Sonia Gandhi
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, January 17, 2010
First Published: 19:50 IST(17/1/2010)
Last Updated: 19:52 IST(17/1/2010)
Describing Marxist leader Jyoti Basu as a "tireless crusader against
communalism" and a "warrior for social justice", Congress president
Sonia Gandhi said Sunday that he was a towering personality.
In a letter to Jyoti Basu's son Chandan Basu, she said that Basu
served his country, party and state with whole-hearted dedication for
over half a century.
"I am deeply saddened by the passing away of your beloved father," she
said in the letter.
Gandhi said Jyoti Basu was "a tireless crusader against communalism,
fundamentalism, casteism and all kinds of obscurantism; a warrior for
social justice and equality and for the eradication of poverty; a true
patriot who always put the national interest above all else".
"He was a towering figure of our national life, whose noble vision,
superb judgement and depth of experience was valued greatly."
The Congress president said Basu "did not go gentley into the night -
he fought bravely until his last breath, just as he did throughout his
life. And what a rich, fulfilled and glorious life he had".
She said he contributed to the formation of United Progressive
Alliance government in 2004. "We continued to count on him for his
wise counsel even after he retired from political life," she said
adding that his demise had left millions of his political followers
throughout the country feeling bereft.
"Together with Indiraji and Rajivji, I held him in the highest esteem.
I have warmest memories of our many meetings - of his charm and grace
and his deep humanity."
bademiyansubhanallah
Manmohan
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, January 17, 2010
First Published: 14:45 IST(17/1/2010)
Last Updated: 20:18 IST(17/1/2010)
Describing Jyoti Basu as a powerful regional voice in the national
political scene, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said he had
turned to the veteran Marxist leader on
Jyoti Basu: 1914-2010
many occasions for his advice on important issues and the response was
always pragmatic.
Singh said the death of the 95-year-old CPI(M) leader marked the end
of an era in the annals of Indian politics. He was a man of great
integrity with a deep commitment to secular values, the Prime Minister
said in his condolence message.
"In a political career spanning more than six decades, the veteran
communist leader steered his party to power in West Bengal, leaving a
legacy of uninterrupted rule by the Left Front that he forged through
his leadership and legendary skills in building consensus, " he said.
Observing that during his more than 20 years at the helm of affairs in
West Bengal, Basu proved himself to be one of the most able
administrators and politicians of independent India, Singh said he was
"a powerful regional voice in the national political scene and helped
to strengthen Indian federalism."
"Shri Basu will be remembered by the people of West Bengal for
bringing stability and order to the State after the turbulent period
of the early 70s and for the rural transformation he brought about
through his visionary land reforms and his style of democratic and
decentralised governance," Singh said.
The Prime Minister, who had called on the ailing Marxist leader in a
Kolkata hospital on January 7, said throughout his long career Basu's
first priority remained the welfare of ordinary citizens, the workers
and the peasants.
"I have personally had a very long association with Shri Basu. On many
occasions in my career, I turned to him for his sagacious advice on
all matters, whether they related to West Bengal or to issues of
national importance.
"His advice was statesmanlike but always pragmatic and based on
unshakable values that he championed throughout his political career,"
Singh said.
"I feel a deep sense of personal sadness at the passing away of this
great patriot, political luminary and intellectual," Singh said
conveying his heartfelt condolences to the members of the bereaved
family and to late leader's countless comrades, friends, admirers and
followers.
bademiyansubhanallah
By Govind Talwalkar
First it was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then it was Jyoti Basu who
confessed that though the goals of socialism should be adhered to, the
times are not propitious to achieve them. Both CPI(M) leaders think
that even though the interests of the working class should not be
overlooked, there is no other alternative but to accept capitalism.
Over the years, the CPI and the CPI(M) have never shown or followed a
bold path of their own. What the grand old man of Bengal and the
poetry- and literature-loving chief minister have realised now, the
Chinese Communist leadership had started implementing more than two
decades earlier followed by the Russians and the Vietnamese.
However, the European socialists preceded all of them long ago. This
is the subject of a very well researched and analytical study, One
Hundred Years of Socialism, in which Prof. Donald Sassoon has pointed
out that the European socialist parties had discarded the path of
armed insurrection and chosen to bring about various reforms. It was
Karl Kautsky who had predicted the inevitable doom of capitalism
because of irreversible economic forces. But Kautskyist Marxism was a
passive strategy, which was not ready to face the situation when this
doom would actually come, if at all.
It was Lenin who devised a path of his own and succeeded because of
the breakdown of the Tsar’s regime and also because of the war. The
European socialists accepted Eduard Bernstein’s analysis which
concluded that capitalism would be able to restructure itself and
continue to develop, and thus, its collapse would not occur in the
foreseeable future. Bernstein’s prophecy has come true, capitalism
has survived and got stronger, while whatever Lenin and Stalin built,
has collapsed.
In the hundred years that Europe’s socialist parties worked under
parliamentary democracy, they successfully brought about various
political, economic and social reforms. They were not attracted to the
path of insurrection. Of course, the progress of reforms was uneven
and differed from country to country. The Scandinavian countries
advanced much more than other Europeans. But on the whole, people in
Western Europe enjoyed better living standards than those in the
Soviet Union and the so-called people’s democracies.
Some of the welfare measures implemented by the socialist parties,
when in power, were not disrupted by the conservatives who followed
them, as they and the capitalists found that these welfare policies
had helped widen the market, and thus, opened the way for more
profits.
It has also been seen that unbridled union power or capitalism creates
social tensions and even social strife. Bengal was no exception. The
CPI(M) might have successfully implemented its land reform policies,
but over time, these reforms have proved that they have limited
potential. The pressure on land grew, and this had to be relieved. The
only remedy was industrialisation.
The CPI(M) ideology which failed all over the Communist world, has
hampered industrial growth. The party might have won power by adopting
radical political measures, but it also drove away capital and
deprived the state of revenue. West Bengal is short of capital and no
option is left other than to invite private capital. The CPI(M)
leadership, in its arrogance, thought that the rural areas being under
its influence would easily accept the terms and conditions for the
take-over of their land. But it misjudged the mood of the people.
The leftists in Bengal could not follow Stalin or Mao who uprooted
several million people from the rural areas. In China 20 million to 30
million people perished in the much touted Cultural Revolution; but
both Stalin and Mao survived.
In India, the CPI(M) government would have been thrown out of office
if the Nandigram agitation had continued for some more time.
It is, therefore, welcome that both Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Jyoti
Basu have come out of their shells and openly accepted the inevitable.
Because of their ideology they have deprived Bengal of the benefits of
the new technology which has made states like Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu economically vibrant. The
educationally and culturally advanced people of Bengal could have made
the state’s economy equally, if not more, vibrant.
In a recent article, Ashok Mitra was all praise for China because of
its economic prosperity and military might. In comparison, he found
India a laggard. He conveniently forgot that China achieved all this
because it discarded Marxist theory and adopted capitalism.
Though Basu and Bhattacharjee are, at last, ready to break their
ideological shackles, some of their diehard party-men might fight a
last ditch battle. The declaration by these two Bengali stalwarts
might prove to be earth-shaking for these elements. But Bhattacharjee
could not enjoy the luxury of irresponsible demagoguery of those who
are not in power and not won any election. The CM has to solve the
chronic problem of unemployment and earn enough revenue to satisfy the
basic needs of the people.
There was a time when it was said that the rest of India followed
Bengal’s lead. That time has long gone. Thus, while the rest of
India has welcomed capitalism long ago, it is only now that Jyoti Basu
has come to realise the inevitability of accepting this ideology; and
the CPI(M) has to follow his lead.
Jyoti Basu’s declaration that socialism is a distant goal and there
is no other way than to accept capitalism, would have repercussions
for the CPI(M) in Kerala, which is already fractious. It would also
unhinge the left establishment and some journalists. It is to be seen
whether CPI(M) stays together or falls apart. The unintended
consequences of the bombshell which Jyoti Basu and Bhattacharjee have
thrown, will be that newspaper readers will be saved from the daily
bombardment of blustering statements by Mr and Mrs Karat and Sitaram
Yechury, as they will be too busy nursing their wounds and addressing
the party’s internal problems.
This apart, if the CPI(M) follows Basu and Bhattacharjee, the
political debate in India will become somewhat rational, and not just
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
http://asianage.com/archive/htmlfiles/Opinion/Thus%20spake%20Jyoti%20Basu.html
bademiyansubhanallah
The Jyoti Basu difference and legacy
IT is no surprise that a major section of the Indian press and media
has treated the self-determined retirement from office of one of the
most illustrious political leaders and statesmen India has produced in
the past century with ill-concealed bad grace and dismissivism ("a
long innings with quite a low score," and so on), if not hostility.
This attitude is an expression of the widespread ideological tendency
of anti-Communism and anti-progressivism rather than a reflection of
anything Jyoti Basu might have done or failed to do as the longest-
serving Chief Minister of independent India and as a major national
political figure. Put bluntly, the negative attitude of much of the
media has reflected a crude prejudice against the ideology, politics
and mov ement of the Left of which Basu has been, for decades, the
best-known national symbol, administrator, and popular leader. Even
the high-minded act of bowing out on account of age and in the face of
intense pressure to carry on as Chief Minister for at le ast a while
longer - a rare moral example of self-abnegation in mainstream Indian
politics - has not been given its due in the media or, for that
matter, in the public space.
A byword for intellectual, political and personal integrity and for a
straightforward but cool and imperturbable style in politics, Basu
made a profound, long-term difference to the large, populous and
strategically important State that has always been h is first priority
and commanded his best effort. However, those who remember him mainly
as Chief Minister of West Bengal between 1977 and 2000 are likely to
underestimate his long experience in the crucible of struggle: as a
trade union organiser, as a p opular agitator, and as a revolutionary
fighter - starting, as was typical for his generation, as a freedom
fighter and courageously facing and overcoming state-sponsored
repression and intolerance in independent India as well. They are
likely also to un derestimate the inner resources of one of the most
attractive and gifted Opposition political figures India, or indeed
any country, has seen over the past half century.
Some others in the Communist party and movement - most importantly, an
E.M.S. Namboodiripad, a B.T. Ranadive, an M. Basavapunniah - have
distinguished themselves as exponents and developers of Marxist
theory. Some others - most importantly, a P. Sundaray ya, a Promode
Dasgupta, a Harkishan Singh Surjeet - have contributed specially to
party-building and organisational affairs. Basu's metier lay in
another domain - where theory, vision, polemic, and the ideological
characteristics and organisationa l resources of a revolutionary
movement encounter the challenge of working with the masses and
winning them over. Basu's genius lay in this interesting and quite
difficult interface where many an ideal, many a leader, and many a
political ambition has fa iled to achieve notable success.
It will take some time for his unprecedented long innings as Chief
Minister of West Bengal to be evaluated objectively and in its various
facets, and to be understood for the quantitative and qualitative
difference it has been able to make. Suffice it to mention some of the
major achievements.
In the first place, Left Front rule has been responsible for momentous
changes in the West Bengal countryside. Over the 23 years of Basu's
helmsmanship, it implemented a basic land reform, established India's
first comprehensive system of democratic dece ntralisation, and
extended rural electrification and irrigation. Agricultural production
came out of the impasse in which it had been trapped for decades
before Left rule, and in the 1980s and 1990s West Bengal showed the
highest rates of agricultural gr owth among the 17 most populous
States of the country. As a consequence of the new institutional
changes and agricultural growth, nutrition levels improved and rural
poverty declined in the State. In fact, West Bengal, followed by
Kerala, has the best re cord among all Indian States with respect to
rural poverty reduction over the past two decades.
Secondly, despite the concerted propaganda efforts in the media to
give the Basu government a bad name, West Bengal is a living example
of democracy at the grassroots. There have been elections to panchayat
institutions every five years since 1978, panch ayats have taken on
responsibilities that were earlier vested with the district-level
bureaucracy, and the divisible outlay for the districts tends to be
close to 50 per cent of State Plan outlays. Elected members of
panchayats are overwhelmingly from la nd-poor and landless households.
The West Bengal experience with local government was the primary
impetus for the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution,
which made regular elections to local bodies, rural and urban,
mandatory in all States.
Thirdly, West Bengal's industrial experience under Left Front rule has
been far from the 'wasteland' alleged in supercilious, sneering and
motivated media assessments. The industrial picture in the State has
been a complicated and mixed one over the last forty years, with signs
of decline and stagnation of traditional industry and problems created
for industrial and finance capital by an exceedingly strong trade
union movement and working class struggles. The theme of 'flight of
capital' has been talked about, but it has been very hard to
substantiate, document and study objectively. Since the adoption of a
new industrial policy since 1994, the State government has worked hard
to attract investors. Some successes have been scored, there have been
disap pointments (as with the joint sector giant Haldia petrochemical
project), and a complex industrial scenario with bright spots as well
as chronic problem areas is unfolding, as is happening in several
other States.
But the difference Jyoti Basu has made to politics and society must
not be assessed merely, or even mainly, with respect to West Bengal.
The limitations of the Left at the national level, especially in Hindi-
speaking India, stand out but West Bengal's Le ft Front has been a
bulwark of the struggle against Hindutva in Indian politics. The 30-
plus MPs from West Bengal have formed the foundation of a coherent and
influential Left presence in Parliament. The Left in Parliament has
been able to contribute the most consistent defence of secularism,
democracy, federalism and national unity, and the most outspoken and
radical critique of the policies of stabilisation and structural
adjustment. Take away the Left and saffron would have a much stronger
role in na tional politics than it does today, with its mixed bag of
opportunist allies. The anti-democratic and disintegrative
consequences of such - unmitigated and unmediated - ascendancy of the
Hindu Right would be too disturbing and tragic to contemplate.
Volume 17 - Issue 23, Nov. 11 - 24, 2000
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1723/17230210.htm
chhotemianinshallah
T. C. A. Ramanujam
FREE India has seen several stalwarts as chief ministers. Rajaji, B.
C. Roy, Govind Ballabh Pant, Morarji Desai and many others brought
glory to their office. This stalwart species vanished with the passing
away of Jawaharlal Nehru. One thing common amon g these stalwarts was
their Congress origin. It was in Mr Jyoti Basu that India saw the
emergence of an absolutely non-Congress, rather anti-Congress, Chief
Minister who combined in an unusual manner charisma with character. Mr
Basu was born with a silve r spoon in the mouth and could have led an
easy life as a barrister. He chose the path of Marxist revolution 60
years back and has never looked back.
Mr Basu became Home Minister in Ajay Mukherjee's Cabinet at the height
of the Naxalite movement. Encounter killings and custodial deaths were
the order of the day. Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar arrived at a
consensus advocating seizure of land from the jotedars. The credit for
ending Naxalite violence and bringing the Marxist-Leninists to the
Parliamentary path goes, in no small measure, to Mr Basu and his CPI
(M) colleagues.
Land reforms and Panchayat Raj
It was however as Chief Minister that the leadership qualities of Mr
Basu came to be seen in full measure. He perfected the art of running
a successful coalition government. He rightly focussed attention on
empowering the rural peasant. The Estate Act of West Bengal of 1954
had prescribed a ceiling of 25 acres of land for each household. The
loopholes in the Act were large enough for the big land owners to
escape the ceiling provisions. Land reforms occupied the centrestage
of the Leftist Government. Th e total area of vested agricultural land
redistributed in hectares and the total number of beneficiaries in
West Bengal, as on September 30, 1995, are 3,86,842 and 22,69,959
respectively. Barring Kerala, no other State in India has achieved
full scale la nd reforms.
At a time when the rest of India was fighting shy of going in for
Panchayati Raj, Mr Basu's government went the whole hog in trying to
democratise the Panchayat system in Bengal. It focussed on the need
for modification of the relations of production and the forces of
production. It emphasised the need for reconstitution of the political
power structure through the revival of the Panchayat bodies elected
along party lines, and playing its political cards expediently so as
to maintain a stable and orderl y regime for a period unsurpassed in
Indian history. ( See G. K. Lieten's Development, Devolution and
Democracy: Village Discourse in West Bengal and Continuity and Change
in Rural West Bengal).
True, there are problems arising from the continuing class character
of agrarian relations in the villages and the political practice of
the Left Front Government in the context of these class relations. But
studies by objective observers such as Mr Swap an Kumar Pramanik and
Mr Prabat Dutta, confirm the assumption that Panchayats in West Bengal
have largely been responsive to the needs of the people, more
particularly those below the poverty line. Even the non-beneficiaries
who have reasons to be hostil e to the Panchayats because of their not
having derived any benefits, hold the Panchayats in high esteem.
Critics may cavil at the fact that the Left Front Government's
attempts at cooperative mobilisation, coupled with rural development
measures, are no t isolated phenomena from the viewpoint of Left
politics but here we enter a dilemma. If the wielders of power concede
the point to those who challenge established values and norms, they
risk losing their legitimacy. On the other hand, the failure to giv e
satisfaction to the discontented might deepen their sense of outrage
and alienation which can further reduce their legitimacy. ( See Mitra
& Rothermund, Legitimacy and Conflict in South Asia, p 23).
Bengali pride and nationalism
Mr Basu brought dignity and grace to the Marxist governance not only
in West Bengal but all over India. In city, town and village there was
one group of Bengalis who claimed and were accorded recognition as
superior in social status to the mass of their followers. These were
the Bhadralok distinguished by the many aspects of behaviour -- their
deportment, speech, dress, style of housing, eating habits,
occupations and more fundamentally, their cultural values and sense of
social proprietary. It is this Bhadralok that took pride in flaunting
the images of a Tagore, a Satyajit Ray, an Amartya Sen, a Saurav
Ganguly and above all in the political field, a Jyoti Basu. Bengali
Nationalism is spirited and emotional, but very different from its
counterpart in the South. Time was when it used to be said that what
Bengal thought today, the rest of India did tomorrow. Today, the rest
of India follows what Tamil Nadu laid down 50 years back and we know
with what consequences. It is worth pondering why Bengal unde r Mr
Basu made no claims for conferring backward class status on any type
of citizens.
Industrial development
Mr Basu is often faulted for failures on the industrial front. He did
attempt a sort of Perestroika but the party will have none of it. No
privatisation, no invitation to FDIs and no change in labour laws. The
party also stood in the way of India having Mr Basu as PM in 1996.
Think of the change that would have come over the entire Indian polity
if only the idea had been accepted. Who would have dared to vote
against a Government at Delhi headed by Mr Basu?
More than a 100 years back, Karl Marx pointed out how men, just when
they seem engaged in revolutionising themselves and things, in
creating something that has never yet existed, precisely in such
periods of revolutionary crises, anxiously conjure up the spirits of
the past to their service and borrow from them names, battle cries and
costumes to present the new scene of world history in this time
honoured disguise and this borrowed language. The Marxist Communists
of India will have to realise that the social revolution they have
been dreaming of cannot draw its poetry from its past but only from
the future. ``Earlier revolutions required recollections of past world
history in order to drug themselves concerning their own content. To
arrive at its own content, the revolution of today must let the dead
bury their dead. There the phrase went beyond the content ; here the
content goes beyond the phrase'' (Marx).
Mr Basu can take legitimate pride in the fact that he provided a clean
government and became a role-model at a time when the whole country
was stinking with corruption all over. It is his honest arrogance that
makes him pour contempt at the shrill shriek s from that lady who runs
a central ministry from South Calcutta. He has the pride and pugnacity
of an innovator. Galileo called one of the defenders of Ptolemic
astronomy ignoramus, elephant, fool, dunce, eunuch. Mr Basu's diatribe
was not that severe.
India can still opt to have Mr Basu as PM. If only the CPI(M) will
relent!
Financial Daily
from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, November 04, 2000
http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2000/11/04/stories/040455ju.htm
chhotemianinshallah
By Malabika Bhattacharya
CALCUTTA, FEB. 24. The former Chief Minister, Mr. Jyoti Basu, 87,
bowed out after attending the last session of the current West Bengal
Assembly ending his 55-year-career in electoral politics.
Mr. Basu, who symbolises the fading generation that founded the Indian
Communist Movement, bade farewell to fellow legislators on the last
day of the session. The only jarring note was a boycott of the
occasion by the opposition Congress, Trinamool Congress and the BJP.
Barring a 5-year break due to a disrupted election, for 24 of the
total 55 years, Mr. Basu's stoney visage appeared to have been
sculpted on the House as he went from strength to strength to head one
of the world's longest serving Communist Governments.
Mr. Basu had relinquished office last November and announced his
decision not to contest the coming assembly elections. ``I will,
however, remain in politics and continue to help my party in every
possible way. I am retiring from electoral politics but not from
politics in general. A communist never retires,'' Mr. Basu today told
the emotion-charged MLAs.
The House was packed with legislators, journalists and visitors who
wanted to witness the historic departure of the most influential
Bengal political leader from the Assembly.
The Opposition boycotted the last day's proceedings saying it did not
want to witness the felicitation of Mr. Basu. ``He failed as an
administrator and Bengal was doomed during his tenure. Why should we
felicitate him?'' asked Mr. Abdul Mannan, the Congress Chief Whip.
An unperturbed Mr. Basu, who has been witness to many histories during
his long political innings, had no regrets. He was happy that he could
do what he had set out to do when the CPI(M)-led Left Front assumed
office in 1977.
Always a self-effacing politician, Mr. Basu brushed aside the credit
given to him in many quarters for the Front's glorious victory in
elections for 5 consecutive terms.
Mr. Basu's association with the Assembly began in 1946 when he won
from the Railway constituency. The Muslim League was in office in
Bengal. His otherwise uninterrupted Assembly career was disrupted for
5 years when his party boycotted the 1972 poll on grounds that it was
rigged by the Congress under Mr. Siddhartha Shankar Ray's leadership.
``I entered the Provincial Assembly with two other Communist party
members. I was always given the opportunity to place our views in the
House by all Speakers,'' he said.
The Chief Minister, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, spoke about Mr.
Basu's outstanding contribution to the House. Representatives from
various front partners - CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP, GNLF and others
echoed the sentiment.
Mr. Basu was presented a shawl, a plaque and a bouquet by the Speaker,
Mr. Hasim Abdul Halim, on behalf of the members.
The Speaker said Mr. Basu had entered the House on May 14, 1946, as an
ordinary member. He became the Leader of the Opposition, then Deputy
Chief Minister and later Chief Minister for a record 24 years. Today
again, he is going back as an ordinary member.
Later, Mr. Basu laid the foundation stone for the Millennium Building
of the State Assembly and unveiled a portrait of Late Bimal Chandra
Sinha, father of the Congress leader, Mr. Atish Chandra Sinha.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, February 25, 2001
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/02/25/stories/01250008.htm
chhotemianinshallah
END OF AN ERA
After leading the State for 23 years, Jyoti Basu steps down from the
post of West Bengal Chief Minister.
KALYAN CHAUDHRI
in Calcutta
TWENTY-THREE years after taking power as the elected Marxist head of
government in West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, the architect of the world's
longest-serving coalition government of Left parties, relinquished
office on October 28. He was succeeded by Buddhade b Bhattacharya, the
Deputy Chief Minister. Bhattacharya was sworn in Chief Minister on
November 6.
Announcing his retirement at Writers' Buildings, which houses the
State Secretariat, Basu, a Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party
of India (Marxist), said the party had cleared his long-pending
request for permission to lay down office on health gr ounds. "It has
been a good innings. Though I shall not remain Chief Minister, I will
be very much in the CPI(M). The retirement issue has been pending with
the party for a year. I am happy they have finally realised that I am
not keeping good health," a relaxed Basu told newspersons in his
office at the State Secretariat.
PARTH SANYAL
Jyoti Basu with his successor in office, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
Anil Biswas, secretary of the State unit of the CPI(M), said Basu's
retirement was discussed at a meeting of the party's State Secretariat
and the proposal was presented at a Left Front committee meeting for
formal endorsement. Biswas said that there was no difference of
opinion on the question of respecting the wishes of the senior leader.
There was unanimity also about Buddhadeb Bhattacharya succeeding Basu,
Biswas told Frontline.
Basu, 87, one of India's most respected politicians, had earlier
expressed his desire to step down from the Chief Minister's post on
September 2. However, following a personal request by party general
secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, he reportedly agre ed to continue
in the post until the CPI(M)'s special party conference, which was
held in Thiruvananthapuram from October 20 to 23.
After sending his resignation letter to Governor Viren Shah, Jyoti
Basu said at a press conference that age-related problems were making
it increasingly difficult for him to bear the burden of the Chief
Minister's responsibilities. "I have not been keepi ng well for the
past few years. I have been in active politics for over 60 years and
have headed the West Bengal government for nearly 24 years at a
stretch. At 87, you can well understand the kind of mental and
physical strain I am exposed to. That is w hy I asked my party
leadership to relieve me from the Chief Minister's responsibilities,"
Basu said.
Basu said that his departure would not create any problem for the
functioning of the government. "Ours is not a bourgeois party. We
believe in the democratic process. We have always endeavoured hard for
the uplift of the working class. A true communist w ill never hanker
for power. And especially when everyone in our party and our Front
partners have unanimously chosen Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as my
successor, I do not foresee any problems in the functioning of the
Left Front once I have stepped down. Budd ha has been doing a
stupendous job as both Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister. I am
convinced he will be an equally successful Chief Minister," Basu
said.
The Left Front unanimously elected Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who was
appointed Deputy Chief Minister 11 months ago in order to ease Basu's
workload, the next Chief Minister. He was sworn in on November 6. Anil
Biswas said there was no better candidate than Bhattacharya to succeed
Jyoti Basu, who himself settled the question by choosing Bhattacharya
as his deputy.
Some constituents of the Left Front, particularly the Forward Bloc,
felt that with the Assembly elections due early next year, Basu chose
the wrong time to retire. They said that as Basu had led the Front to
five consecutive election victories since 1977 and helped
institutionalise the system of coalition politics, he should have
considered retirement only after ensuring a record sixth term for the
Left Front in office.
The Front constituents have requested Basu to be the chairman of the
Left Front Committee. Basu has not yet responded to this. Veteran CPI
(M) leader Sailen Dasgupta, the present chairman of the Left Front,
has expressed his willingness to step down and t ake up the post of
the Front's convener.
However, Basu is of the opinion that younger leaders in the party
should step out of his shadow to meet the new challenges and run the
party organisation and the government.
PARTH SANYAL
After hoisting the national flag on Independence Day 2000, in front
of Writers' Building.
IN the coming months, the Left Front will have its hands full dealing
with the situation created by the Trinamul Congress' campaign against
it. Emboldened by its victories in the Panskura Lok Sabha constituency
and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC ), the supporters of
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee have unleashed a wave of violence in
Midnapore, Hooghly and Bankura districts. Apparently, their intention
is to create a situation that will warrant the imposition of
President's Rule in the State.
However, for the Trinamul Congress and its ally the Bharatiya Janata
Party, capturing power in the State will not be an easy job. The
Trinamul Congress' violence in certain pockets of South Bengal has to
a great extent been countered by a resistance move ment inspired by
the Left Front.
The Congress(I) is not expected to pose a threat to the Left Front in
the 2001 elections. The appointment of Pranab Mukherjee as the State
Congress(I) president has only divided the party further, and Congress
(I) workers have been caught between two cent res of command - former
president A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, and former working president
P.R. Das Munshi.
The BJP is also in a bad state because of internecine quarrels.
Moreover, Mamata Banerjee seems to be expecting that a section of the
BJP will join her party. Indeed, the process seems to have started
already. Recently, Congress(I) leader and former Mini ster Motahar
Hossain and Paras Datta, former vice-president of the State BJP,
turned up at a Trinamul-sponsored rally in Calcutta and declared that
Mamata Banerjee was their leader.
FEW people become legends in their lifetimes. Jyoti Basu has the
distinction of being one such. Basu, who was labelled anti-national
and jailed for over a year after the India-China war in 1962, went on
to acquire the stature of a national leader. He was unanimously
elected the United Front's prime ministerial candidate in 1996.
However, in accordance with the decision of his party, Basu turned
down personal requests made by leaders such as V.P. Singh, Indrajit
Gupta, Mulayam Singh Yadav and H.D. Deve G owda to accept the post.
After early education in Calcutta, Basu went to England to study law.
While in London, he became a communist and abandoned his plans to
become a lawyer. He returned to India in January 1940 and joined the
Communist Party of India. Basu was elected an org aniser of the seven-
member Bengal Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of India at
its first legal conference in 1943. He worked among port and dock
labourers. In 1944, the party asked him to organise a trade union for
the workers of the Bengal-As sam Railways.
Basu was first elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in May 1946
from a railway electoral constituency. He defeated the Congress
candidate Humayun Kabir. When the Communist Party of India was banned
in 1948, he was arrested.
A leader of mass movements, Basu played a prominent role in organising
major agitational programmes such as the resistance to a hike in tram
fares in 1953, the teachers' agitation in 1954, the resistance to the
Bengal-Bihar merger proposal in 1956 and th e food movement in 1959.
The CPI's participation in these agitations helped spread its base in
the State, and with it grew Basu's stature as an organiser. He was in
the forefront of Statewide demonstrations and protest rallies against
the Congress govern ment's failure to check an alarming rise in prices
of foodgrains and the illegal foodgrain trade. The Opposition parties,
led by the Communist Party of India, launched a movement against the
government over the issue of food shortage. The government atte mpted
to crush the movement. In the violence that followed, 33 people were
killed and nearly 3,000 were injured.
PARTH SANYAL
The leader at the CPI(M) State Committee office on Alimuddin Street
in Calcutta.
In the first general elections held in January 1952, Basu won from the
Baranagar constituency in north Calcutta, defeating his main opponent
Harendranath Roy Chowdhury, a Congress Minister and a rich landlord.
The CPI won 29 of the 87 seats it contested. In 1957, the party's
strength rose to 46 in a House of 280. Basu got re-elected from
Baranagar.
In 1967 the Congress lost power in West Bengal, and a coalition of the
United Front (U.F.), formed with the CPI(M), the CPI, the Forward
Bloc, the Bangla Congress and the RSP, came to power. Although the CPI
(M) won the largest number of seats, it accepte d Ajoy Mukherjee of
the Bangla Congress, a breakaway group of the Congress, as Chief
Minister. Basu was elected Deputy Chief Minister. However, the U.F.
did not last long and Ajoy Mukherjee resigned following differences
among the U.F. partners. The Forw ard Bloc, the CPI and the Socialist
Unity Centre of India (SUCI) refused to stay in the Front led by the
CPI(M). The government fell and President's Rule was imposed in March
1970. Mid-term elections were held in 1971. In the elections, the CPI
(M) emerge d as the single largest party, with 113 seats in a House of
280, and formed the United Left Front with the RSP. Basu staked his
claim to form the government, but his claim was rejected. The
Congress, the CPI and the Bangla Congress formed a coalition gov
ernment with Ajoy Mukherjee as Chief Minister. However, the government
fell when a no-confidence motion, moved by the CPI(M), was passed by
the Assembly.
During the 1972 elections, held under President's Rule, the Congress
resorted to rigging and large-scale violence and the CPI(M) boycotted
the Assembly.
In the 1977 elections, Basu was elected from Satgachia in South 24
Parganas district with an overwhelming majority. Since then, he has
won from Satgachia in all the elections. After the 1977 elections, the
CPI(M)-led Left Front came to power. The Left Fr ont government,
headed by Basu, took office in June 1977.
A party document of that time said: "The CPI(M) in West Bengal has the
advantage of having as heads of the party and the government two of
the ablest veterans of the Indian communist movement, who have worked
together for nearly 40 years, and are both me mbers of the Polit
Bureau - Jyoti Basu, 64, suave, sombre and graying, is one of the
Chief Ministers in the present-day India who wears the stature of the
Prime Minister; Promode Dasgupta, 69, the silver-haired party builder,
is the chief of the CPI(M) i n West Bengal and also in charge of the
CPI(M) affairs in the other eastern States."
On his first day in the Chief Minister's office, Basu told his Cabinet
colleagues: "We will implement our programmes not from Writers'
Buildings alone, but from the fields and factories where our strength
lies and with the help of the people."
He pledged to carry out a 36-point programme with emphasis on land
reforms, law and order and panchayati raj institutions. "The emphasis
on land reform is not any exercise in charity, but is essentially a
productive move on the basis of hard evidence of superior production
performances on the part of the working peasants. Of the total
agricultural land distributed through land reforms in India, nearly 20
per cent has been contributed by West Bengal," Basu said.
Twenty-three years later, looking back at Left Front rule under his
leadership, Basu said after his resignation: "The rural and agrarian
sector is the backbone of the economy of the State. Therefore, the
government in the last 23 years gave priority to p rogrammes and
schemes dedicated to the improvement of the rural economic scene,
based upon the active participation of the people in this process. The
democratically elected panchayat and local bodies are the prime movers
in rural development."
A pragmatist, Basu has shown great interest in the rapid
industrialisation of the State. In the last few years he invited
foreign capital to West Bengal. But he has always been cautious in
this regard.
Leaders of Left Front constituents say that Basu can look back with
satisfaction. They believe that Basu had played a great role in
building his party in the State into a disciplined, cohesive unit.
Volume 17 - Issue 23, Nov. 11 - 24, 2000
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1723/17230190.htm
chhotemianinshallah
The journey to Writers’ Buildings and beyond
Marcus Dam
The end of Jyoti Basu’s well-fought life truly marks the end of an
era
— Photo: N. Ram
AT HOME: Nonagenarian Jyoti Basu at Indira Bhavan in Salt Lake,
Kolkata, on September 21, 2008.
KOLKATA: The first Left Front Ministry in West Bengal led by Jyoti
Basu was sworn in at 10-30 a.m. on June 21, 1977. Two United Front
governments had earlier assumed power with him as Deputy Chief
Minister, but those could not function for more than 22 months because
of (in his words) “internal dissensions and conspiracies hatched
against them by some reactionary political forces and vested
interests.”
The journey to Writers’ Buildings had indeed been long.
Born in Kolkata on July 8, 1914, Jyoti Basu was educated in St
Xavier’s and Presidency College before going to England in 1935 to
study law. “It was during our student life in London,” he recalled in
his memoirs, “that some of us took a conscious decision that once back
in India we would devote ourselves to the Communist Party.”
He qualified as a barrister and returned to India in 1940 at the age
of 26. Although he enrolled as an advocate at the High Court in
Calcutta, “Marxist literature and the contemporary happenings of the
world,” he wrote later, “were fast pulling me into the mainstream of
politics.” He became associated with the Communist Party of India in
various capacities. Later, when the party split, Mr. Basu was a member
of the founding nine-member Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist), and was to be the longest-living of the CPI(M)’s
“navaratna.”
Landmark achievements
During his tenure as Chief Minister, which lasted for more than 23
years (June 1977 to November 2000), the Left Front government
travelled a long way. Its landmark achievements included the
implementation of land reforms and the establishment of a democratic
three-tier panchayati raj structure, and, later, new policies to
encourage investment in industry.
Prime mover
Mr. Basu was the prime mover of perhaps the most important initiative
in large-scale industry in West Bengal in recent decades, the Haldia
petro-chemical complex. In 1996, his name was proposed by the United
Front, the coalition of parties led by the Janata Dal, as a consensus
candidate for the post of Prime Minister. The decision by his party to
turn down the proposal was later characterised by him as a “historic
blunder.”
PHOTO: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH.
LAST JOURNEY: The body of veteran Communist leader, Jyoti Basu, being
taken from hospital to a funeral parlour in Kolkata on Sunday. It will
be kept there for public homage for two days. People lined the streets
and perched precariously on bus-shelters, police barricades and
railings to catch a glimpse of the revered leader.
Unprecedented step
In 2000, Mr. Basu, citing his age and declining health, took the
unprecedented step of resigning from the post of Chief Minister, an
act of moral self-abnegation on which he insisted despite intense
pressure to continue.
He continued, of course, to be the wise counsellor, not just on
matters related to his party but also those of government in his
State. Senior leaders of the CPI(M) continued to visit him at Indira
Bhavan, his residence in Kolkata’s Salt Lake, seeking his advice on
issues concerning government or Party, sometimes both.
If Mr. Basu commanded the respect of leaders across the political
spectrum, who seldom missed a chance to seek his counsel, he also had
a special fondness for children, who were regular guests at his home
on his birthdays. No matter how heavy his responsibilities or weighty
the political tasks, they never failed to evoke a smile.
The 19th Congress of the CPI(M) held in Coimbatore in early 2008
acceded reluctantly to his desire to be relieved of his membership of
the Polit Bureau, although he remained a special invitee to the body
and stayed on as a member of the party’s Central Committee. He himself
was unable to attend that Congress and watched the proceedings on
television from Indira Bhavan.
He made it clear, in media interviews, that his stepping down from
government or party posts did not at all mean retirement from
politics; as a Communist, he would continue to do whatever his
declining energy levels and health allowed him to do, even in his late
80s and 90s.
Jyoti Basu was a fighter till the last. It can truly and without
exaggeration be said that the end of his life marks the end of an era.
A legend in his lifetime, he remains one in death.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 18, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
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Sid Harth
STAFF WRITER 16:54 HRS IST
Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and
BJP leader L K Advani will pay homage tomorrow to Jyoti Basu who would
be given a state funeral.
"Jyoti Basu will be given a state funeral tomorrow.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will led a 30-member
delegation to pay tribute to Basu at the assembly premises where his
body will be kept for over five hours," Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul
Halim told reporters here.
Among other leaders to pay homage would be union ministers Sharad
Pawar and Jaipal Reddy, former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, former
prime minister H D Deve Gowda and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, Chief
Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said.
Under a changed schedule, Basu's body will be taken from the funeral
parlour where it is being kept and taken to CPI(M) headquarters at
Alimuddin Street at around 8:30 am.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/473705_Bangla-PM--Sonia-to-pay-homage-to-Basu-tomorrow
Sid Harth
STAFF WRITER 18:53 HRS IST
Hyderabad, Jan 18 (PTI) The Andhra Pradesh Council of Ministers
condoled the death of former Chief Minister of West Bengal and veteran
CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu.
The state cabinet that met here today under the chairmanship of Chief
Minister K Rosaiah passed a resolution expressing 'deep sorrow and
condolences' over the death of Jyoti Basu.
The cabinet recalled the abilities of the departed leader, who was the
longest-serving Chief Minister in the country.
The cabinet also expressed its condolences to the bereaved family.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/474067_AP-govt-condoles-Jyoti-Basu-s-death
Sid Harth
Final preparations at hospital to receive Basu’s donated body
PTI
PTI Communist leaders Prakash Karat, Biman Bose, Nirupam Sen and
others carry the body of veteran leader Jyoti Basu to place it inside
the Peace Haven Morgue in Kolkata.
Doctors and staff of the Anatomy department of the State-run S.S.K.M.
hospital have been making preparations to receive the body of Marxist
leader Jyoti Basu on Tuesday.
A meeting was called on Monday at the hospital, by Health minister
Suryakanta Mishra, with doctors and officials of the Anatomy
department and the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and
Research (IPGMER).
“Basu’s body will be used for medical study and research by students
and research fellows,” doctors at the hospital said, while declining
to give further details.
“As a communist, I am pledged to serve humanity till my last breath. I
am happy now I will continue to serve even after my death,” Mr. Basu
had written while pledging to donate his body at a function organised
in 2003 by ‘Ganadarpan’, an NGO.
Mr. Basu had also pledged his eyes, which were removed after his death
on Sunday by doctors of Sushrut Eye Foundation at Salt Lake.
“Basu’s corneas have been kept for the Muktakeshi eye foundation,” CPI
(M) sources said.
CPI(M) leader and former Land and Land Revenue minister Benoy Krishna
Chowdhury and former State CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas had also
donated their bodies after death.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article81930.ece?homepage=true
Sid Harth
Basu to get guard of honour, gun salute on last journey
IANS
The Hindu Former West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu. File photo:
Sushanta Patronobish
Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu will be given a guard of honour and
a gun salute on his last journey on Tuesday before his body is handed
over to a hospital here for use in medical research.
There will be no funeral and no last rites in keeping with Mr. Basu’s
wishes. He had already pledged his body for medical research and
donated his eyes.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI(M)) West Bengal secretary Biman
Bose said on Monday that Mr. Basu’s body will be taken out of Peace
Haven — a funeral parlour in central Kolkata where it is now lying
embalmed — at 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Announcing a revised schedule of Mr. Basu’s last journey, he said the
cortege will navigate through Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Park Street and
A.J.C. Bose Road in the central part of Kolkata and reach the CPI(M)’s
State headquarters Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan on Alimuddin Street around 8
a.m.
“The body will be kept at the party office till 9 a.m. All members of
the party’s politburo, central committee, state committee, district-
level party cadres and leaders of the state’s ruling Left Front will
be allowed to garland the body and pay their last homage,” Mr. Bose
said.
The procession will reach the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings at
9.45 a.m. and be there for the next 10 minutes.
The cortege will head for the state legislative assembly at 10 a.m.
where the body will be kept till 3 p.m. for his followers and other
people to pay their last respects.
“We will keep the body at the state assembly for almost five hours so
that people, including political dignitaries from home and abroad, can
pay homage,” he said.
Bose requested all state LF ministers and Lok Sabha members from the
state to pay respects to the 95-year-old leader at the assembly.
The last journey will start at 3 p.m. and traverse through Red Road
and Cathedral Road and finally terminate at the government-run
S.S.K.M. Hospital on Harish Mukherjee Road.
Before the body is handed over to the hospital, a gun salute will be
given to the former West Bengal chief minister at Mohar Kunj, earlier
called Citizens’ Park, located close to the S.S.K.M. Hospital
premises.
Mr. Bose said all members of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau and central
committee will attend the last journey.
Mr. Basu was the last surviving member of the party’s first Polit
Bureau — CPI(M)’s highest decision-making body.
A condolence book will be kept open at the Alimuddin Street party
office for people to pay their condolences.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article82025.ece?homepage=true
Sid Harth
A great life (1914-2010)
Diminutive Jyoti Basu, who outlived most of his contemporaries, was a
man of immense political stature, one of India’s most illustrious
leaders and statesmen of the past century. His charisma was undisputed
and at the mass level, he was certainly the best-known face of
communism across the land — transcending the regional limitations of
the Left’s base and influence. Reputed for his integrity and
straightforwardness, for his clear-sightedness and work ethic, and for
his decisiveness in governance, he was a master of civilised — if, at
the core, uncompromising — discourse. He was respected and listened to
across the political and ideological spectrum on key policy matters,
national and international. Mr. Basu’s record as independent India’s
longest-serving Chief Minister (June 1977-November 2000), who led the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Front to the first
five of its seven successive Assembly election triumphs, is unlikely
to be bettered for a long time to come. The highlights of his legacy
as Chief Minister are land reforms, which benefitted millions of
sharecroppers and other peasants and helped consolidate a rural class
base that proved quite unbeatable over three decades; the
democratisation of panchayati raj institutions; the establishment of
the Haldia petro-chemical complex; the creation of an atmosphere of
communal harmony and secularism across a large State; and political
stability of a new kind. There were significant under-achievements in
the fields of education and public health and in terms of industrial
development. But Mr. Basu was not one to cover up deficiencies or
shortcomings and in the last decade of his life, he spoke candidly
about what might have been achieved during his 23 years at the helm —
had there been the necessary understanding backed by a concentrated
effort.
The foundations for Mr. Basu’s distinction were laid much before he
became one of the country’s most important Chief Ministers. An
educated and sophisticated man, trained in Britain to be a barrister,
he joined the Communist Party when it was illegalised, worked in the
trade union movement and in mass organisations, faced state
repression, and was schooled in tough struggle before emerging as one
of the top leaders of the Communist movement — and after the split, as
one of the founding members of the CPI(M)’s nine-member Polit Bureau.
A byword for courage and steadfastness, he was also famous for his
cool; he brushed off assassination attempts, which brought about no
noticeable change in his style of mass politics. Some CPI(M) leaders —
most importantly, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, B.T. Ranadive, and M.
Basavapunniah — distinguished themselves as exponents and developers
of Marxist theory. Some others — most importantly, P. Sundarayya,
Promode Dasgupta, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet — contributed specially
to party-building and organisational affairs. Mr. Basu’s great
strength was in another domain — where theory, vision, polemic, and
the ideological characteristics and organisational resources of a
revolutionary movement encountered the challenge of working with the
masses and winning them over. His genius lay in this immensely
difficult interface, where many an ideal, many a leader, and many a
political ambition has failed to achieve notable success. CPI(M)
general-secretary Prakash Karat was certainly not being hyperbolic
when, in his tribute, he singled out Mr. Basu for teaching Communists
“how to work and serve the people in parliamentary forums in order to
bring about changes in public policy” and declared “there will be none
like Jyoti Basu again.” It is indeed the end of a heroic era and The
Hindu shares the nation’s grief over this great loss.
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article81681.ece
chhotemianinshallah
KHAMMAM: A former naxalite was hacked to death by some unidentified
persons near the Ngarajunasagar Project Guest house in the town late
on Sunday night. The police said that Nallamothu Venkateswarlu, 38,
who had earlier been with the Praja Pratighatana group was killed by
his rivals. Venkateswarlu, who was the main accused in the murder of
one Vikram, was out on bail recently. The sickle used by his
assailants was also found abandoned on the spot. The Khammam urban
police registered a case and investigation is on. - Special
correspondent
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
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chhotemianinshallah
An unusual friendship
Navin B. Chawla
Asked what he, a Communist and atheist, could possibly have in common
with Mother Teresa for whom God was everything, Jyoti Basu said with a
smile: “We both share a love for the poor.”
— Photo: PTI
Mother Teresa invariably prefixed the words “my friend” before she
took Jyoti Basu’s name.
The Hindu requested Navin B. Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner of
India and Mother Teresa’s biographer, to share his insights into the
remarkable friendship between Jyoti Basu and the founder of the
Missionaries of Charity:
During the course of writing a biography on Mother Teresa, I asked
Chief Minister Jyoti Basu what he, a Communist and atheist, could
possibly have in common with Mother Teresa for whom God was
everything. With a smile that reached his eyes, he said: “We both
share a love for the poor.” For her part, Mother Teresa invariably
prefixed the words “My friend” before she took his name.
From the legendary Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. B.C. Roy, who
first recognised her work, to the equally legendary Jyoti Basu who was
always available to her when she needed him, Mother Teresa’s work in
the city that was beloved of her, could not have been possible to the
extent it was without their understanding and their support. It is not
that the Missionaries of Charity did not spread their wings to almost
600 centres in 123 countries around the world. It is that Kolkata was
her epicentre, the city she identified as her home.
On one occasion when Mother Teresa was visiting Delhi, she fell ill
and had to be admitted to a city hospital. For a week that she was
there, I was at her bedside and also became her link to the besieged
hospital switchboard; there were no mobile phones in those days. With
unfailing regularity, Jyoti Basu rang each day to enquire after her
health. When I once told him that she repetitively said to me, “Let me
go back to Kolkata, I will be all right there,” he laughed
understandingly.
On another occasion, when she was admitted to the Woodlands Nursing
Home in Kolkata, I saw him enter without fuss, meet Doctor Bardhan and
the Sisters, make an enquiry and quietly leave. One of Mother Teresa’s
senior-most companions, Sister Gertrude, said to me: “He does not miss
a single day.”
In turn, whenever he was unwell, she would visit him in the nursing
home or at his house, say a prayer and leave. The good wishes of the
one and the prayers of the other complemented each other both in
sickness and in health.
On one of my visits to Kolkata, Mother Teresa asked me whether I had
been to Tengra. She explained that the Chief Minister had asked her to
take charge of about 400 women inmates of the Kolkata jail, many of
whom had been undertrials for long years; others were mentally ill. In
her practical way, she asked him for some land. He gave her about 11
acres in Tengra, near the leather tanneries.
When I visited it, she had already created a haven of peace and
tranquillity. Just four of her Sisters had taken charge. The women
were finally at peace. Tengra was a visible demonstration that both
spoke the same language.
In July of 1997, when I was a mere Joint Secretary in the government,
I sought an appointment with the then Principal Secretary to the Prime
Minister; I do not know what made me do it. I told him that Mother
Teresa was very sick and did not have much time left to live. Having
nursed her once in Delhi, I had also become distantly acquainted with
the halls of power that called with unfailing regularity seeking a
health bulletin.
I knew that many of these callers would come to her funeral, and there
could be a protocol nightmare. I added that no matter where she passed
away, the Sisters would bring her to Kolkata for her burial there.
“Leave it with me,” he said adding that he would need to be in touch
with Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, as he would need to look into all the
arrangements.
She died about two months later on September 5 that year. I was told
later that Jyoti Basu had been alerted some weeks earlier. When my
family and I attended the memorial service and the funeral in Kolkata,
everything went off like clock work.
Later on, my batchmate and friend S.N. Menon, Secretary to the Chief
Minister, told me of the correspondence and work that began at the
West Bengal end. During the first part of the actual ceremony, where
religious rites were also being administered, Jyoti Basu chose not to
be present. Like a good communist, he entered at exactly the moment
when these ended, and the civic part of the ceremony began. But I saw
his imprint in every last detail.
And when at the very last, the Missionaries of Charity Sisters asked
for special permission to bury Mother Teresa at Motherhouse, her
headquarters at Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Road, that permission too
he accorded.
He gave his friend Mother Teresa a befitting farewell.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
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chhotemianinshallah
Unassuming Basu
The editorial on Jyoti Basu (Jan. 18) was excellent, moving, and
edifying. I have an interesting anecdote to share with the readers. In
1977-80, I was doing my PhD in Sociology at Bangalore University, at
the Jnana Bharati campus, which is some distance from the city. One
afternoon there was news that Jyoti Basu would address the students.
Like any ordinary mortal, he walked into the auditorium. He was
accompanied by some people who were probably student leaders. His
speech was organised by the Economics Department.
An academic (who later joined the BJP) and Jyoti Basu were on the
dais. A student brought forth a garland. To my dismay, I found that
instead of garlanding Basu the student garlanded the academic, and his
flatterers applauded him. The academic was known for his
eccentricities, and I thought this was of a piece with his reputation.
A cool Basu then addressed the students, praised the academic, and
left. A few of us accompanied him out of the auditorium. He asked
someone where the canteen was, and, when told, went straight there. We
went with him. After a glass of tea (and yes, he drank from the
regular glass tumbler), which he personally collected from the
counter, he left in an Ambassador car. I did not see any security, any
VIP (including the VC) or even the academic to see him off. We felt
bad about this, but admired Basu’s simplicity, and the ease with which
he merged with the group (students, in this case).
A couple of years ago, when I met an old student who was part of the
team that arranged Basu’s visit to the university, I tried to find out
why the garland went round the academic’s neck instead of Basu’s, but
got no answer. All that I gathered was that a few students had
arranged the visit at their own expense and that the university had no
role in it. It is possible that communists like Basu treated garlands
as millstones round the neck, and so advised the student to hang it
around the neck of his teacher, which (millstone) he deserved!
P. Radhakrishnan,
Chennai
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
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chhotemianinshallah
Great leader
Although uncrowned, Jyoti Basu was the king of West Bengal. He was a
true patriot and democrat, and a great source of inspiration. He made
momentous contributions to public life, and to the development of West
Bengal. He will be best remembered as a leader of the masses. His
demise leaves a void, difficult to fill.
Vinod C. Dixit,
Ahmedabad
Jyoti Basu contributed a lot to India — its secularism, Left
consciousness, political equilibrium, and its democratic well-being.
His biggest gift to West Bengal was land reform — something the
dweller of Kolkata has neither understood nor will ever reconcile
with. He gave the State’s poor dignity and self-respect but couldn’t
guarantee prosperity as defined in the post-liberalisation era. Almost
all modern Indian politicians have been inspired in some way or the
other by Basu. The Indian Left will never be the same again.
Mohd Ziyaullah Khan,
Nagpur
“A life of struggle and unprecedented political success; integrity and
commitment all the way” — the words (Jan. 18) were the greatest
tribute paid to the veteran Marxist leader. Basu’s demise is an
irreparable loss to not only the left movement but also the entire
country. The country has lost a statesman and a man of wisdom.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Srirangam
The passing of the Communist leader is a great loss to the nation. His
government is credited with restoring political stability in West
Bengal after it was wrecked by naxal insurgency in the 1970s.
More than a million sharecroppers benefited through the land reforms
introduced by his government. Basu was an ideal candidate for Prime
Minister, which he never became.
V. Douglas Kirpa Raja,
Coimbatore
Jyoti Basu was the unquestioned leader of the CPI (M) since its birth
in 1964. He reformed and transformed West Bengal into a well-governed
State. He was a gentleman — bhadrapurush. In his passing away, the CPI
(M) has lost a charismatic leader. The Union government should honour
him with the Bharat Ratna.
B. Raghavendra Rao,
Tanuku
Jyoti Basu was a legendary Marxist leader who set high benchmarks for
those heading a government. Was there any Chief Minister other than
him who insisted on leaving office because he could not give his best
due to his advancing age? Can there be another leader who will abide
by party discipline, in spite of holding a contrary view, and forsake
prime ministership? Besides land reforms, his great contribution to
the nation was his relentless struggle to maintain high standards of
secularism.
Kasim Sait,
Chennai
India has lost a great leader, an able administrator, a true Marxist,
and a great patriot. Heading a complex State for more than two decades
was no mean task. He was a giant among political leaders and a
visionary with the right mix of political acumen and practical
wisdom.
Varijakshan Edakkazhiyoor,
Malappuram
Basu will be long remembered for his outstanding work in implementing
effective agrarian reforms that substantially reduced rural poverty,
as also the growth of grassroots democracy by devolution of State
power to elected local self-governments. An uncompromising Marxist,
Basu modernised communism to fit into this century by demonstrating
that electoral democracy, not armed revolution, was the way to the
emancipation of the peasantry and workers.
On the negative side, West Bengal suffered a massive flight of
industries and capital due to the stridently aggressive trade
unionism. When Basu realised that his State was relegated to the
economic backwaters, the pragmatist in him lost no time in initiating
measures to reclaim the lost ground.
P. Krishnan,
Puttaparthy
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
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chhotemianinshallah
Simple living
A major contribution of Jyoti Basu was the establishment of village
democracy in West Bengal, which was also one of the reasons for his
uninterrupted rule for nearly two-and-a-half decades. His lifestyle,
like that of the quintessential Bengali intellectual, was based on
simple living and high thinking.
T.G. Venkat,
Chennai
Basu epitomised the principle of simple living and high thinking. The
fact that condolences continue to pour in from leaders across the
political spectrum speaks volumes about his sagacity and vision.
B. Suresh Kumar,
Coimbatore
Over two decades, Basu served the people of West Bengal. He quit
politics at the right time and led a normal life, unlike many
politicians who demand privileges even after retirement.
B. Thiagarajan,
Coimbatore
Unlike many present-day politicians, Jyoti Basu accumulated only
people’s love and affection. He was a man of the masses reputed for
his integrity and straightforwardness. Again, unlike politicians who
stick to their post by hook or by crook, he volunteered to step down
making way for his deputy.
A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai
What was remarkable about Jyoti Basu’s long innings as Chief Minister
was there were no scandals or scams during his regime. He is one of
the few politicians who make youngsters feel proud to be Indians. May
his tribe increase.
N. Chandrasekar,
Chennai
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/19/stories/2010011953380803.htm
Sid Harth
Advani, Gadkari, pay homage to Basu
PTI
Paying homage to Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu, senior BJP leader L.K.
Advani on Tuesday said the former West Bengal chief minister was a
great leader who had placed CPI(M) in a “commanding position” in
Parliamentary democracy.
At the N.S.C. Bose international airport here, Mr. Advani told
reporters, “Despite political differences, it is our duty to pay
homage to a great leader like Basu. He had placed the CPI(M) in a
commanding position in Parliamentary democracy.”
Mr. Advani accompanied by party president Nitin Gadkari and JD(U)
chief Sharad Yadav arrived at the West Bengal assembly premises, where
the late Basu’s body was kept, and placed a wreath on it.
Paying tribute to the veteran CPI(M) leader, Mr. Gadkari said he would
be remembered for his role in farmers’ movement.
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