Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee obit: Tragic, flawed reformer who wooed capitalism at his peril

Since taking over as chief minister of West Bengal from ageing Jyoti Basu in 2000, Bhattacharjee had aggressively pushed pro-industry policies, deviating from the avowed Marxist principles.

Much to the chagrin of many within Communist Party of India (Marxist) as well as his government, a coalition of leftists, Bhattacharjee, a chain-smoking dhoti-clad atypical ‘bhadarlok”, openly embraced capitalism and advocated it with the conviction akin to an ardent Adam Smith disciple and not a life-long Marxist.

"I am very clear in my mind. This is capitalism. I just cannot build socialism in one part of the country. They (leftist critics) theoretically cannot accept this position. Academically they cannot accept this position. I cannot build socialism in one state of India. I have to follow capitalism. But we have to protect against the negative effects of a capitalist society," Bhattacharjee famously said in an interview in 2007.

Pro-industry policies

It was during his tenure as chief minister of West Bengal from 2000-2011 that the state had become a preferred investment destination.

Within two years of formulating the state’s IT policy in 2003, the sector registered 70 per cent growth. In 2000-01, West Bengal was second only to Gujarat in terms of investment realisation. Galaxies of multinational companies led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation and Indonesia’s Salim Group joined Indian giants in IT sectors, service sectors, car and steelmaking to foray into Bengal that had long been ignored by big businesses as militant trade unionism ruled the roost in the state under the previous regimes.

The drift was sensed barely days after Bhattacharjee was handpicked by Marxist stalwart Jyoti Basu as his successor. CPI (M)’s then West Bengal state secretary Anil Biswas at a meeting of Left Parties in December 2000 appealed to the workers to “make sacrifices” for the cause of its industrial development and warned against militant trade union activities.

The transformation was not easy. In the same meeting of the Left parties, the Bhattacharjee-led government’s pro-industry policies came under heavy criticism from then CPI(M) politburo member B Sivaraman and SUCI leader Provas Ghosh.

Opposing bandh culture

“Where is the working-class movement in West Bengal? Privatization, lockouts and retrenchments are the order of the day," Ghosh told the meeting.

Sivaraman said the chief minister was sending out wrong signals by stating that militancy in trade union movements would not be allowed. A section within the Left remained critical of Bhattacharjee’s industrial policies all through his tenure.

Bhattacharjee's remarks in a business meet in Kolkata in 2008 expressing opposition to the 'bandh culture' in the state and that he would not allow militant trade unionism in the state as they were "illegal", had drawn sharp criticism from his party and its other Left allies. But Bhattacharjee, known for his rebellious streak, did not falter from his attempts at economic reforms, drawing kudos from the business and industry leaders.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji, whose company was the first IT major to venture into the state with a 17-acre campus and a futuristic centre, had called the Marxist leader the best chief minister in the country. Another IT captain TV Mohandas Pai even went on to predict that India’s renaissance in the 21st century will come from Calcutta like it did in the 19th century.

Un-communist conduct

It was not only in his industrial policies that Bhattacharjee differed with many of his comrades. His minority policies and stand on China were not always in sync with the party-line.

After a terrorist attack on the American Centre in Kolkata on January 22, 2002, he became vocal against alleged security threats posed by mushrooming unauthorised madarsas. He had even claimed that some madarsas were indulging in “anti-national” activities and that the state had evidence. The observation left many comrades fuming.

In another most “un-communist” conduct, Bhattacharjee never bent over backwards to be on the right side of China like most of his other comrades.

In 2006 when India agreed to the long-pending demand of the Chinese to open a trade route through Nathula Pass on India-China border in Sikkim, Bhattacharjee did not attend the ceremony despite being a special invitee. He did not even send any ministerial representative at the event as he felt the trade route would help China dump its products in West Bengal, especially the northern part of the state bordering Sikkim.

Penchant for controversies

The otherwise soft-spoken Bhattacharjee even crossed swords with his mentor Jyoti Basu in the early 1990s and moved out of the latter’s cabinet on the grounds of corruption in administration. That he was rehabilitated in the ministry within two months of his departure showed his clout in the party, and that it was willing to give a long rope to the “prodigal” son.

There were many more instances of his penchant for triggering controversies. As an information and cultural affairs minister, he had the press corner in Writers' Building dismantled and even restricted the movement of journalists in the state secretariat, claiming they were "potential security threats" to Basu. He served as minister of information and culture between 1987 and 1996, and as minister of home affairs from 1996 to November 2000, before he was picked to replace Basu.

Poet and playwright

The grey-haired bespectacled Bhattacharjee was also equally known for his predilection for arts and culture, and being a vociferous reader. His favourite writer was Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, many of whose works he translated into Bengali.

His insatiable appetite for literature was perhaps genetic. The revolutionary Bengali poet-playwright Sukanta Bhattacharjee, who was known for his unconventional style of wiring, was his father’s first cousin. Bhattacharjee himself penned several poems and over ten non-fictions on contemporary politics in Bengal and India and on international issues. His last book Nazi Germany r Jonmo O Mrityu (The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany) was published in 2018.

The industrial growth story of Bengal the poet-playwright politician wanted to script, however, did not climax the way he had planned.

Failed reformer

The land acquisitions for industrial projects snowballed into massive movements in Singur and Nandigram that eventually led to the end of Communist era in Bengal and the rise of Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress as a new messiah of the proletariats.

Sadly, Bhattacharjee, the rebel who tried to usher in the industrial revolution in Bengal and was once even hailed as India’s Deng Xiaoping - the reformist Chinese leader - ended up as a failed reformer who presided over the fall of a Communist citadel in India.

In his rise and fall, Bhattacharjee’s political trajectory in a microscale manner mirrors that of late Mikhail Gorbachev, the tragic hero whose policy reforms led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union