As the Communist titan who ruled Bengal for 23 years takes his leave, he leaves behind a wealth of memories and legacies. But one question that will haunt Bengal is whether Basu, who once came tantalisingly close to becoming Prime Minister in 1996, was really successful as the chief minister of Bengal. A closer look at the report card of the man who turned the state into a Communist bastion shows that this was not entirely the case.

The Basu years will loosely be remembered as the period between 1977 and 2000, when he spearheaded the nine-party alliance led by the CPI(M) that ruled Bengal.

Till the late 1960s, Bengal had never quite tasted Communism, having traditionally been one of the many Congress strongholds. Then came the CPI(M)?s rise to power, slowly from the mid-?60s, noticeably in the ?70s and then peaking under Basu who, thanks to his tactical brilliance in alliance politics, gave a solidity to his party.

Early years, training in law

Born on July 8, 1914 in erstwhile Calcutta, Basu, a doctor?s son, went to Loreto and St Xavier?s before graduating from the prestigious Presidency College with an honours in English in 1935. Thereafter, he went to London to study law and returned as a barrister in 1944. Though he registered with the Calcutta High Court, Basu never practised law. He married in the meantime, and soon became a full-timer of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI).

Not much later, Basu was drawn into trade union activities and in a few years, rose to become the general secretary of the merged railway and road workers? unions.

Once a winner…

Entry into electoral politics was waiting to happen, and it came two years later in 1946, when Basu was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council from the railway constituency.

Basu?s close aides say the Marxist veteran would fondly remember July 24, 1946 as a landmark date when he led an adjournment motion in the state council, seeking the release of political prisoners.

It was in 1952 that Basu won the state Assembly elections, and since then, he never lost an Assembly election till November 2000, when he relinquished the post of chief minister citing ill health.

It was during this phase that his son Chandan was born, even as Basu rose to become state secretary of CPI. Five years on, when CPI officially became the Opposition party in the Assembly in 1957, Basu took charge as the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. In 1964, two years after the Indo-China war, the CPI split over ideological differences and Basu commandeered the breakaway CPI(M), becoming a founder member of the party and its Politburo.

Then came his first shot at the Cabinet when he became the deputy chief minister in the United Front government in 1967 and took charge of the state home ministry two years later.

To Writers? Building

The ?70s were a mixed bag for the Marxist stalwart, who after being pushed off-stage for the first part of the decade?the Congress was in power during the period?stormed to power in 1977, riding a tidal wave of public outrage against the ?brutal? suppression of the Naxalbari movement.

In the years that followed, Basu would entrench his party deep in power, enough for it to last for over three decades.

As for Basu?s own report card, a fair analysis will rest on his distinct roles as chief minister, administrator and political leader.

Land reforms

As chief minister, Basu spent the initial years of his 23-year-long tenure on land reforms in rural Bengal. Though the CPI(M) has always touted the land reforms as something that transformed rural Bengal, the reality is more mixed. Critics say, in practice, land distribution in rural Bengal was hopelessly unequal during Basu?s tenure, fuelling lasting resentment among the rural folk. Binoy Choudhury, the real architect of Basu?s land reforms initiative, once famously said the state government was becoming ?by the contractor, of the contractor, for the contractor?.

Basu?s other feat was in the sphere of industry, it is said. He was known for pushing it up as the CPI(M)?s agenda after taking a cue from alliance partner RSP. But the monstrous scale of urban unemployment belies the claim. It is said that by the time Basu retired from active politics in 2000, there were an alarming 60 lakh registered unemployed youth in Bengal, a charge the state government counters to date. Basu?s tenure in office precipitated the closure of industries, spawning unemployment and fuelling urban discontent over the dearth of jobs.

Then there was his decision on the bar on the Queen?s language in primary education. A year-and-a-half after coming to power, Basu struck English off primary schools, a decision he had to roll back a year before his bid for the PM?s office. Effectively, Basu ensured there was no English at the primary level in Bengal for a good 20 years?seen by the intelligentsia as a crippling blow to Bengal?s intellectual progress.

Basu?s supporters have to deal with another red mark on his report card as CM?the nagging load-shedding problem. During his first three terms, rampant power outages were a given in Bengal. Critics still say?Jyoti Basu?r dui konna, load-shedding ar bonna, ar Jyoti Basu?r dui putro, Nandan ar Chandan (Basu?s two daughters are load-shedding and floods, and his two sons are the Nandan complex and Chandan).

Basu?s many shortcomings as chief minister, however, were overshadowed by his exploits as master tactician and political leader.

Big Brother ruled the Front

Analysts give Basu a neat 10-on-10 when it comes to pure politics. The way he stitched together an otherwise wobbly nine-party alliance in Bengal for all those years still draws admiration. While Basu?s influence remained unwavering in Bengal, not even once did CPI(M)?s allies threaten to sink the ship despite Big Brother?s dominance.

One of Basu?s several masterstrokes as a politician was in 1994, when he placed the state?s industrial policy in the Assembly before laying it on the table for the party. Another example was the police firing in 1992 that left 13 people dead. There was outrage but Basu never faced flak, in sharp contrast to the Nandigram firing in 2007 for which Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee continues to pay a heavy political price.

In the party, Basu was a stickler for discipline. But there were a few transgressions?like his famous statement after his party turned down the offer to install him as PM in 1996. ?It was a historic blunder,? Basu had said after the CPI(M)?s central committee decided to reject the offer. At the committee?s meeting at the time, Basu was unusually quiet, it was Biman Bose who took the final call.

While Basu?s party has always been on combative terms with the Congress, the former chief minister was known to have extremely cordial personal ties with the Gandhi family as well as with Siddhartha Shankar Ray. In fact, days after Indira Gandhi?s assassination, her son Rajiv had urgently called on Basu to seek his advice on national affairs.

The Teflon CM

As a politician, Basu had a Teflon image. Barring the scam surrounding his industrialist son Chandan, a case that has remained inconclusive, Basu?s personal record never came under question. Only, in a sideshow, Basu is said to have hounded out RSP?s Jatin Chakrabarty over Chandan. A sad split with finance minister Ashok Mitra over the issue was also seen to be a result of Basu?s excessively tough stand.

Always a non-smoker who was fond of scotch, Basu frequently cited ill health in the run-up to relinquishing the chief minister?s office on November 6, 2000. But besides his falling health, Basu?s detractors say his decision to quit had also to do with his waning popularity, which was reflected in his progressively declining victory margin in his constituency of Satgachhia in South 24-Parganas.