Jyoti Basu was the longest serving Chief Minister of any state in India (DV Feb. 16, 2010, p.9). As head of the ruling Left Front he ruled W.Bengal for 23 years from 1977 to 2000. He never dreamt to become the CM. For the first five years of his tenure the communists shouted from roof top that Indira Gandhi would dismiss his govt. which, however, never happened.
He will be best known as a man of status quo. He never tried to push through any of the policies which the powerful manuwadis and upper caste bureaucrats resisted.
Though land reform started soon after the Left came to power, it had to be abandoned when the marxists realised that their supporters in the countryside were upper caste landowners. This rural educated section (teachers) who have to do party work more but not bother much about teaching. 32 years ago primary school teacher’s monthly pay was Rs. 200 month. Now over Rs. 5,000.
Giving the havenots very little and yet controlling the vast rural area with the help of the upper castes has been the modus operandi of the manuwadi marxists.
Muslim support: Pass-fail system has abolished in Bengal. Children are promoted to the higher class without exam. The idea behind this is to keep the children unlettered. 40% children of class III and IV cannot read and write Bengali. The percentage is higher for SC/ST/OBC and Muslims. After he took over, industrial units one by one closed. Howrah dt., which had maximum number of factories is today barren.
He was more interested to remain as CM than do something concrete to save his state. Most important quality of this marxist was to maintain the status quo. Muslims supported him because no state-sponsored anti-Muslim riots took place during the last 32 years unlike the anti-Muslim riot (1964) under the very nose of the then Congress Chief Minister P.C. Sen when 10 lakh Muslims emigrated to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). (abulqaseem2008@yahoo.com)
