Buddhadev
Bhattacharya inherited from his predecessor a crumbling edifice; he’s
restored it his way and reaped rich dividends
Full Marx: Left’s Red Fort rebuilt with essence of Bengali bhadrata
Subrata Nagchoudhury
Kolkata,
May 13: When Jyoti Basu retired last November, the overwhelming
perception was that the Red Fort that is West Bengal would, without
his leadership, crumble and finally collapse under the weight of
its vanities, indiscretions and rapidly diminishing popular appeal.
It has taken just six months for Buddhadev Bhattacharya to prove
that Basu’s exit was the best thing to happen to the CPI(M).
And he’s done it his way, with decency, dignity and humility,
the three elements that make up the bhadrata Bengalis value above
all other qualities.
Never was that more apparent than today. Having secured a stunning
win for his Left Front, this was when Bhattacharya could have sat
back and gloated; gloated over his detractors within the party,
gloated over those in the Press who’d written him off, gloated
over his opponents who mocked his intellectual exploits.
But today, as on any other day, the Bhattacharya household was a
gloat-free zone. The same self-effacing habit that had driven reporters
— used, as they are, to poison-tipped darts fired by all politicians
at their brethren — almost to distraction was very much in
place today. Asked how far he was responsible for this victory,
Bhattacharya blushed visibly before saying, "It is not ‘me’
but ‘we’ who have made the difference. It is collective
responsibility."
His non-conformist bent of mind even forced him to refuse enthusiastic
party cadres smearing his face with abir (vermilion) in the hour
of glory. "Celebration is in my mind." he said.
If indeed he was the malicious kind, he could easily have scored
one today over the Press corps. The city’s mediamen have been
wary of him ever since he dismantled the Press corner at Writers’
Buildings several years ago. Today, though, all that was in the
past as he hugged photographers who turned up at his flat to greet
him with bouquets.
And unlike other CPM leaders — including Jyoti Basu —
who sarcastically "congratulated" the media today for
having failed to dislodge the Left Front government despite what
they described a "sustained slander campaign’’ against
it, Bhattacharya said he held no such grudge.
These traits
have endeared him most to the Bengali Middle-Class, his fellow bhadralok
who are still smarting from the way in which his predecessor let
them down. Because not only did Jyoti Basu, during his 23-year-reign,
sacrifice Calcutta or Kolkata at the altar of the rural votebank,
he also suffered from arrogance and a disdain for ordinary people.
Ironically, those same qualities existed in Bhattacharya till he
became CM; he was seen as cold, arrogant and uncomfortable with
people.
Even CPI(M)
insiders acknowledge that Bhattacharya’s new style of functioning,
of simplicity and accessibility, played a large part in today’s
outcome.
The result in
Kolkata, for instance, is a case in point. The urban core of the
city has traditionally been anti-Left and a stronghold of the Trinamool
Congress. Even the last Lok Sabha election and the municipal elections
bear testimony to that. This time, though, the Left won back much
lost territory, wresting four seats from the Congress-Trinamool
alliance.
In retrospect,
it now appears that Bhattacharya was not boasting when he said,
just before the polls, that he had witnessed a positive change in
the audience profile in his meetings. “I found that a section
of the urban educated middle class, youths and women are responding
to us.” He remembered them yet again today, saying: ‘‘I
know a section of the urban umemployed are still opposed to us.
We have to reach out to them and create more job opportunities.”
Perhaps the most famous example of his bhadrata was when, during
the campaign, he refused to attack his direct opponent, Mamata Banerjee
(Jyoti Basu had no such qualms). He had explained that it was not
in his “taste” to attack opponents on personal level,
especially a woman. This, in a state where conductors stop buses
that extra moment for women by shouting ‘aaste, ladies’,
won him invaluable points. Today, when journalists prodded him for
a quote on the Trinamool’s defeat under Mamata’s leadership,
all he said was, “This is not the time when I should try and
ridicule her.”
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