by Harihar Swarup

Man who will replace Jyoti Basu
THERE is hardly any doubt that Buddhadev Bhattacharya will succeed Jyoti Basu in 15 months’ time but the question is whether he will be able to fill the void created by the exit of the ageing Marxist. “No, that does’t look possible”, say senior CPM leaders “Jyoti Basu is Jyoti Basu and it will be difficult to bridge the generation gap; no leader is tall enough to fully step into his shoes”. According to senior party leaders Somnath Chatterjee and Hannan Mollah the gap can be made up by collective leadership.

Is Barnala still CM’s Man Friday?
WITH his bete noire in Sangrur politics, has the septuagenarian Surjit Singh Barnala been sidelined? No, far from it, his is the face which Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, even today prefers to project while talking to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to sort out the state’s problems.

75 Years Ago

Mr Chintamani’s Misunderstanding
IT would be interesting to enquire how the mistaken impression which the Mahatma has now contradicted was produced. It was evidently not a case of merely a Bombay newspaper indulging in baseless speculation.

by Harihar Swarup
Man who will replace Jyoti Basu

THERE is hardly any doubt that Buddhadev Bhattacharya will succeed Jyoti Basu in 15 months’ time but the question is whether he will be able to fill the void created by the exit of the ageing Marxist. “No, that does’t look possible”, say senior CPM leaders “Jyoti Basu is Jyoti Basu and it will be difficult to bridge the generation gap; no leader is tall enough to fully step into his shoes”. According to senior party leaders Somnath Chatterjee and Hannan Mollah the gap can be made up by collective leadership. “There has to be a collective leadership after Jyoti Basu”, say Chatterjee and Mollah, a member of the powerful Central Committee. Buddhadev, popularly known as “Buddha”, has to uphold a tradition and carry on Jyoti Basu’s legacy, the two leaders say.

There has been some stark similarities in the career graphs of Jyoti Basu and Buddhadev. Basu held the post of Deputy Chief Minister in the United Front Ministry led by elderly Ajoy Mukherjee of the Bangla Congress three decades back. He was then 54 and Buddha, now holding the Deputy Chief Minister’s office, is also of the same age. The post has now been specially revived for Buddha. Significantly, the late sixties were marked by political turbulence which saw a split in the CPM and an unknown place, known as “Naxalbari”, triggered off” the “Naxalite” movement. Jyoti Basu’s term as Deputy Chief Minister did not go off smoothly.

Buddha has been sworn in Deputy Chief Minister at the time when Assembly elections are 15 months away and the Marxists are under pressure in their own bastion. Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, if she aligns with the BJP, may pose a formidable challenge to the CPM in the coming elections. Added to that the incumbency factor of the 22-year-long Marxist rule has started coming to the fore. According to reports, Mamata may herself choose to oppose Buddha in Jadavpur constituency. She nurtures the dream of one day becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Both Jyoti Basu and Buddha are product of Calcutta’s renowned Presidency College. While Basu graduated with honours in English Literature in the early thirties, his Deputy Chief Minister was a post-graduate student of Bangla literature in the mid-sixties. He could not obtain the Masters degree because of active involvement in students politics.

Though 54-year old Buddha may not have the towering personality of Jyoti Babu, he is known to be incorruptible. He never bestows undue favours on anybody and is noted for his frank speaking. His habit of calling a spade a spade is often mistaken as arrogance; so much so that many in his own party call him ill-tempered. But he is, in fact, suave and cultured, has literary interests and feels more at home in the company of writers, poets and intellectuals. He has authored several plays, composed poems and also translated noted Russian writer, Mayakovsky’s work into Bangla. One of his much acclaimed plays is “Dushsamay” (bad times) which incidentally, he wrote when he resigned from the Babu Cabinet in the mid-nineties and was briefly out of the government. That was really a bad time for him.

Buddhadev’s uncle, Sukant Bhattacharya, was the revolutionary poet of Bengal who died at an young age but his political guru was Pramode Dasgupta, known to be one of the founding fathers of the Communist movement. Beginning his career as National Secretary of the Students Federation of India, affiliated to the CPM, Buddha became the federation’s National Secretary and within a short span in 1964 became a full-time party member. Rising rapidly in the hierarchy he became a permanent invitee to the party’s supreme policy making body, the Central Committee.

Having led the Left Front Government to victory for the fifth time in 1996, Jyoti Basu showed reluctance to carry on the responsibility of governing the state and, in an effort to shed some of his burden, he handed over the charge of the police department to Buddhadev. It was then made out in CPM circles that the party had overused Jyoti Basu and that he needs rest. The long strenuous years had started telling on his health.

A positive indication that the ageing Chief Minister has been grooming Buddha as his successor came in mid-1977 when the party’s secretariat of West Bengal nominated him as acting Chief Minister in the absence of Jyoti Basu when he proceeded on a 24-day visit to the UK and South Africa. This was done for the first time, and the party headquarters formally announced this arrangement; significantly, the announcement did not come from the Chief Minister. Jyoti Basu goes to London practically every year but never before his work was formally assigned to anyone.

November 26 last was an important day in the life of Buddhadev. The ruling Left Front committee met to elect him as Deputy Chief Minister setting aside the claims of five other aspirants. When certain objections were raised by the Front’s constituents with the plea to the CPM leadership not to impose Buddha unilaterally, Basu reportedly told his allies: “Tell your partymen that it is a request from me”.

The 86-year-old Marxist Chief Minister then proposed Buddha’s name with the preface: “I cannot attend office for more than a couple of hours and I am carrying home far too many files than my health allows me to study. I need someone to reduce my workload and I propose Buddha’s name”. Buddhadev Bhattacharya was unanimously elected Deputy Chief Minister and also, at the same time, the succession issue also appears to have been settled.

Is Barnala still CM’s Man Friday?

WITH his bete noire in Sangrur politics, has the septuagenarian Surjit Singh Barnala been sidelined? No, far from it, his is the face which Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, even today prefers to project while talking to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to sort out the state’s problems. When Mr Badal was in the Capital on Wednesday last, he began the day by sharing breakfast with Mr Barnala at the Kapurthala House Chief Ministerial suite and ended it by taking Mr Barnala along with him when he went to meet the Prime Minister. Punjab got a Rs 600 crore package. Mr Barnala, who was a Cabinet minister along with Mr Vajpayee in the 1977 Morarji Desai Ministry, was used as the fulcrum. However, pending problems remain — little headway was made regarding the three delayed high-profile projects: a science city at Jalandhar, the refinery at Bathinda and the international airport at Amritsar.

Target: Vincent George

Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s personal secretary (whom she has inherited from her late husband), Mr Vincent George, is now in the eye of a storm. Two anonymous letters have been circulated among Congressmen and faxed to some select journalists listing a host of allegations against him and even alleging that he is responsible for ‘‘internal sabotage’’. The first letter dated November 30, after listing various charges of accumulation of property, says that government agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) have plenty of material on this private secretary and thus he is vulnerable. The second letter was circulated on December 9 and it named some close friends of Mr George apart from some politicians. With talk of reshuffle at 10, Janpath in the air, a tirade against Mr George seems to have been stepped up. It remains to be seen if the long service record of this family faithful, who joined the AICC staff in early seventies and moved to Mrs Indira Gandhi’s out-of-power citadel, 12, Willingdon Crescent, in 1977, will be able to stave off the onslaught. A little known fact is that after Mrs Indira Gandhi moved back to 1, Safdarjung Road as Prime Minister in 1980, Mr George was essentially attached to the then apolitical couple — Rajiv and Sonia — and his association developed into an official relationship when Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister 15 years ago and continues since then.

Seven unlucky for Quattrochhi

The latest issue of Delhi Gymkhana Club’s newsletter “Club Life” lists 18 names of persons whose membership has been terminated due to non-payment of dues. It includes number Q-7, M.O. Quattrochhi. Apparently this former Italian business executive, who is wanted in the Bofors case, has decided to stay far away from India and thus has failed to even pay up his club dues.

Old habits die hard

The debate preceding Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s reply to the demand of the Opposition seeking the resignation of three Union Ministers charge-sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case had some interesting moments. Former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker and AIADMK member P.H. Pandian was in the best of his elements while giving his views on the issue but somewhere down the line he got derailed. The provocation was some utterances by DMK members where they raised questions about charges pending against AIADMK supremo J.Jayalalitha.

Mr Pandian turned grim and warned the DMK members not to ‘‘excite’’ him or for that matter ‘‘irritate’’ him. He said as a former Speaker he could control them and put them to shame through certain disclosures about DMK Ministers in the Vajpayee Government. He claimed he had enough evidence against the Ministers and if the DMK members persisted in provoking him, he would be forced to spill the beans. The DMK members continued to interrupt him and Mr Pandian went ahead by naming the two Ministers (the references were dropped from the record by the Speaker). Finally, in what was to be a demand on the resignation of three BJP Ministers ended up with a demand on the resignation of two DMK Ministers. Mr Pandian surely lived up to the adage that old habits die hard.

Millennium bash

All over the world there is a mad rush to scout for places on the globe where the new millennium could be ushered in. Special events are being planned while some modern cities like London and Sydney are erecting special structures to commemorate the turn of the century.

It is indeed unfortunate that India will be left behind as each country is competing with the other to promote tourism and link it to year-end. Of course there is some effort to market the idea that the first rays of the sun will hit Kachil island in Andaman and Nicobar islands. According to latest reports some 14,000-odd tourists from various parts of the world will descend there to witness the natural phenomenon.

The Andaman administrators have hired some ships to be stationed around the area since there is practically no accommodation there. Of course, the tourism ministry is adding to the effort by planning to take a delegation consisting of eminent artists and treat them to the rare spectacle — when the clock strikes 12 at Greenwich and the first rays of sun will fall on Kachil island.

Naidu’s career

The BJP spokesman, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, wanted to be a lawyer but then destiny and the Congress had something else in store for him. According to the amiable BJP General Secretary he was placed under detention during the Emergency for 17 months. ‘‘I was placed under detention for 17 months for no fault of mine but then I don’t regret it’’ he says. The reason: He wanted to be a lawyer at the time he was arrested. But the arrest made him determined to enter public life and fight against what he calls ‘‘dictatorial’’ rule. Mr Naidu says he gives full credit to the Congress for being what he is today.

Sonia’s birthday bash

Trust the Congress members not to let an opportunity to be seen along with the party President and what could be a day better than the chief’s birthday. It was on December 9 that Mrs Sonia Gandhi turned 53.

‘‘There was an unprecedented’’ rush, (if a loyalist is to be believed) to greet the Congress President at her residence, 10, Janpath. And of course, there were bouquets and gifts too.

Contrary to Indian custom where gifts are not declared, the President made the spokesman announce some of the expensive stuff, including a golden tiara, a sandalwood statue and cash of Rs 51,000. Of course, Mrs Sonia Gandhi decided that the gifts would be put to auction and the money raised from it be given in charity to ‘‘needy and poor’’ Congress workers. A classic case of taking from the rich and handing it over to the poor.

(Contributed by SB, T.V Lakshminarayan, K.V. Prasad and P.N. Andley)

75 YEARS AGO
December 12, 1924
Mr Chintamani’s Misunderstanding

IT would be interesting to enquire how the mistaken impression which the Mahatma has now contradicted was produced. It was evidently not a case of merely a Bombay newspaper indulging in baseless speculation.

Mr Chintamani himself appears to have shared the same impression, for we learn from an Associated Press telegram that the Mahatma’s willingness to make concessions with regard to franchise was communicated by him to a meeting of the Council of the Liberal Federation.

Mr Chintamani is so careful a man that it is not easy to believe that he would have based so important a communication merely on an unauthorised newspaper report. How, then, could he have so grievously misunderstood the Mahatma?