Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (1 March 1944 – 8 August 2024) was an Indian communist politician and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. In a political career over 5 decades, he became one of the senior leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist) during his regime.

Bhattacharjee was known for his relatively open policies regarding business, in contrast with the financial policies of CPI(M) being primarily anti-capitalist. But trying to do so, Bhattacharjee in his tenure as CM faced strong land acquisition protests and allegations about violence against the protesters. This led Bhattacharjee to lose the election in 2011, resulting in the fall of Left Front's 34 years of rule in West Bengal, the world's longest-lasting democratically elected communist government.

Early life

Bhattacharjee was born on 1 March 1944 in North Kolkata to a Bengali Brahmin family. His grandfather, Krishnachandra Smrititirtha was a Sanskrit scholar who had composed a priestly manual named Purohit Darpan, which remains popular with Bengali Hindu priests in West Bengal. Buddhadeb's father, Nepalchandra, did not enter into the priesthood and was involved with the family publication, Saraswat Library, devoted to selling Hindu religious material. Poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was Nepalchandra's cousin. A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Buddhadeb studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honours). He then joined Adarsh Shankha Vidya Mandir school at Dum Dum as a teacher.

Personal life

Bhattacharjee was married to Meera Bhattacharjee. Together, they had a child who underwent gender surgery and is now known as Suchetan Bhattacharjee). Bhattacharjee was renowned for his frugal lifestyle. The family lived in a two-room apartment in Ballygunge, Kolkata. Bhattacharjee operated as Chief Minister from the same residence. Although belonging to a family of priests, Bhattacharjee was an avowed atheist, in accordance with the principles of communism.

Early political career

Bhattacharjee joined the CPI(M) as a primary member in 1966. Besides taking active part in the food movement, he also supported Vietnam's cause in 1968. In 1968, he was elected as the state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI(M), that was later merged into the Democratic Youth Federation of India. He served in the position till 1981, when he was succeeded by Boren Basu. He was mentored by Pramod Dasgupta.

Political career

Bhattacharjee was elected to the state committee of CPI(M) in 1972 and was inducted in the state secretariat in 1982.

From 1977 to 1982, he was elected as the MLA of Kashipur-Belgachia. Bhattacharjee served as the Minister of Information and Public Relations in the West Bengal Cabinet between 1977 and 1982.

In 1982, he lost the assembly elections from Cossipur constituency in 1982 by a slender margin. He was made a permanent invitee to the central committee of CPI(M) in 1984 and was made a member in 1985.

Later, in 1987, he became the MLA of Jadavpur and continued to represent the constituency till 2011. He was re-inducted in the cabinet in 1987 as the Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held departments of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs.

He was included in the cabinet in 1991 as a minister, with the portfolios of Information and Cultural Affairs and Urban Development and Municipal Affairs. However, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993, following differences with then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, regarding the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption. Notably, he remarked that Basu's cabinet was a "council of thieves". He returned to the cabinet a few months later.

Following the 1996 West Bengal election, Bhattacharjee was handed the responsibility of the home and police department, owing to the declining health of the elderly Chief Minister Basu. In 1999, he was made the Deputy Chief minister of West Bengal.

On November 6, 2000, he was elevated to the position of Chief Minister after Basu's resignation. In 2002, he was elected to the politburo of CPI(M).

Chief Minister of West Bengal

Bhattacharjee was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal and was sworn in in a solemn ceremony at Raj Bhawan. As Chief Minister, he led the CPI(M)-led Left Front to two successive election victories in 2001 and 2006. In 2001, the Left Front secured 199 out of 294 assembly seats and in 2006, it improved the tally to 235 out of 294 seats.

Bhattacharjee's tenure saw major incidents of violence like the Chhoto Angaria massacre, the Netai killings and the Dhantala case. There was also an escalation of Maoist attacks in the state, the most notable being the attack on a police camp at Silda, violence in Lalgarh and the Jnaneswari Express train derailment.

Bhattacharjee started an industrialization drive in West Bengal to bring in more investment and jobs in the states. Under his government, West Bengal saw investments in the IT and services sector.

Notable among the invited projects was that of the production of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, in Singur, a small town near Kolkata. Other notable proposals included the country's largest integrated steel plant in Salboni by the Jindal group. Another notable proposed project was a chemical hub at Nayachar, after it had faced resistance from farmers in Nandigram.

However, his plans were perceived negatively, and his party, along with its front partners, suffered heavy losses in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. In the 2011 state assembly election, he was defeated by the former Chief Secretary of his own government, and the Trinamool congress candidate Manish Gupta by 16,684 votes. He became the second West Bengal Chief Minister to lose an election from his own constituency, after Prafulla Chandra Sen in 1967. The Left Front saw a drubbing, securing just 62 seats out of 294. He resigned as Chief Minister on 13 May 2011.

Singur Tata Nano controversy and Nandigram violence

Events during his tenure as Chief Minister included attempts to industrialize West Bengal thwarted by the TATA's Tata Motors leaving Bengal in the face of the joint protests of the Trinamool Congress, Socialist Unity Centre of India, and Indian National Congress, the land acquisition dispute in Singur, the Nandigram incident, and the Netai incident.

In January 2006 the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Left Front Government ministers including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and others in relation to land allotments made in the Salt Lake City township in Kolkata.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Government came under heavy criticism for police action against demonstrators in Nandigram in East Midnapore. He was criticized not only by opposition parties (such as the Trinamool Congress, INC, PDS, BJP, CPI(ML)L, CRLI and others) and other Left Front coalition allies like CPI, RSP and AIFB, who threatened to back out from the ministry on this issue, but also by his mentor and the state's former chief minister, Jyoti Basu.

On March 15, 2007, Basu criticized Bhattacharjee for failing to restrain the police in Nandigram. Bhattacharjee expressed regret for the shootings, but claimed that he permitted police action because Nandigram was an "area where there had been no rule of law and no presence of an administration for not one, two or 10 days but for two-and-a-half months, and many hundreds of villagers left Nandigram, and took shelter in a state relief camp outside Nandigram." Actually Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declared that land in Nandigram wouldn't be acquired by ordering the Nandigram notification to be torn apart. Still police were not allowed to enter Nandigram. Roads were dug up, preventing administration from entering the area.

The CPI(M) declared that they were totally behind Bhattacharjee and had drawn up "plans" to placate his critics in the Left Front. His government was also criticized by Left supporters for failing to protect the Left party workers (including his own party CPI(M)) who came under assault from political opponents - both right wing and ultra-left wing Maoists during the post-Nandigram turmoil until the end of 7th Left Front Government.

Later life

Despite his calls to be relieved of party responsibilities, Bhattacharjee was retained as a member of the Politburo and the Central Committee in the 20th party congress, organised at Kozhikode in 2012.

He was relieved of his posts on the Polit Bureau and Central Committee at the 21st party congress, organised at Vishakhapatnam in 2015. The party congress elected him as a special invitee to the Central Committee. However, he was persuaded to remain a member of the state committee and the state secretariat till 2018. In 2018, due to continuing ill-health he stepped down from the state committee and the state secretariat. He was later named as a special invitee to the state committee. In 2019, he made an attempt to attend a mega-rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata, however, due to breathing difficulties he could not appear on the stage and remained seated in his car.

In January 2022, the Central Government of India bestowed Bhattacharjee with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India. However, he declined the award and claimed that he had not been informed about the award. He said a call was made to his residence earlier in the day, while adding there is no provision of taking consent for giving Padma awards.

Death

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee died on 8 August 2024 in Kolkata after suffering from prolonged chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Works

• বিপন্ন জাহাজের এক নাবিকের গল্প- Translated works of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1994)- On February 28, 1955, a Colombian Navy ship "Caladus" was hit by a storm in the Caribbean Sea. The ship started from Mobile, a port city in the US state of Alabama. The destination was the port of Cartagena, Colombia. The ship made it safely to the port of Cartagena but only one person survived. Buddhadev Bhattacharya translated the book 'The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor'
• ‘’দুঃসময়’’ (transl. The Bad Times) (1993) - Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's play deals with the communal tension between Hindus and Muslims in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
• এই আমি মায়াকভস্কি (1994) - Translated works of Russian-Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky
• চিলিতে গোপনে- Translated works of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1996)- September 11, 1973 was a dark day in Chile's modern history. General Pinochet's military seized power in a violent coup against the left-wing government of Salvador Allende. Thousands of people were sent into exile. Attacks were concentrated on communists, socialists and leftists. Famous Chilean director Miguel Litín was exiled from the country soon after the coup. Later his name was included in the declared list of undesirable persons. Twelve years later, he entered Chile under the guise of a false identity to film his country and its people in the ravages of military rule. He narrated the harrowing story to his close friend, the renowned novelist Gabriel García Márquez. Marquez recorded the expedition in his book 'Clandestine in Chile'. Buddhadev Bhattacharya translated the book 'Clandestine in Chile'.
• ফিরে দেখা (প্রথম পর্ব) (transl. Looking back- first part) (2015)- Not an out and out reminiscence, this book is e flashback„ with some well-constructed montages of a momentous past.It propels the readers to early five years of the Left Front Government in West Bengal(1977-1982)
• ফিরে দেখা (দ্বিতীয় পর্ব) (transl. Looking back- second part) (2017)- This is a frank and concise account of the last decade (2001-2011) of the Left Front Government in West Bengal, India, by the communist leader who headed it.The author does not avoid controversial issues like the movement at Singur and Nandigram against his government while focusing on developmental goals and achievements of which he and the Left can be justly proud.
• নাৎসি জার্মানির জন্ম ও মৃত্যু (transl. The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany)- (2018) The book consists of 14 chapters excluding the preface and appendix. So that – from the rise of Hitler to the last days of Hitler. From the Prime Minister to the Fuehrer, Russia's struggle for self-defense, the fall of Germany and Italy, the concentration camps, etc., are told.
• স্বর্গের নিচে মহাবিশৃঙ্খলা (transl. Chaos under heaven) (2019)- In this 72-page book, the former chief minister of the state has highlighted the evolution of China - from constructing the great wall of China to prevent the Mongolian invasions to the world power of the Chinese information technology company 'Alibaba' in the era of globalization.