Recalling Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s first visit to Advani’s home in Delhi

Kolkata: BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani was then the deputy Prime Minister of India and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Bhattacharjee was coming to Delhi to meet Advani at the latter’s home at 30 Prithviraj Road.

When I learnt of this development, I was excited as a scribe, more so because it was the first visit by any Communist leader to the residence of Advani who was considered the architect of Ram Mandir movement.

Despite that, he was fond of Buddha babu for the latter’s honesty, calm demeanour and argumentative mind. Bhattacharjee also used to enjoy conversations with Advani.

He used to visit North Block on several issues related to Bengal but that was his first visit to Advani’s home.

I asked Advaniji if I could be present during the meeting since, as a journalist, I wanted to know what “khichdi” was being cooked. However, he told me that since he is the host and I was a scribe, Bhattacharjee may not like my presence. He instead suggested I visit after lunch around 4pm. Accordingly, I met them later and saw both were excited and in praise of each other.

For a long time, this relationship survived and Bhattacharjee told me that he was ideologically against Advani as he never agreed with the latter’s Hindutva philosophy but enjoyed a tête-à-tête with him since he likes debating.

I was a Delhi correspondent of Anandabazar Patrika which supported Bhattacharjee’s vision of industrialisation.

I developed a brilliant relationship with Buddha babu and travelled to Indonesia and Singapore with him. The journeys were marked with interesting conversation on Bengal’s need for industrialisation. He said he was against strikes in the state and that became more evident through one instance. CPIM’s headquarter at Alimuddin Street had called for a strike when Bhattacharjee was the Chief Minister.

He told Alimuddin that the IT sector should not be affected and subsequently issued an administrative order against any such bandhs in New Town, Rajarhat area which is the IT hub. He arranged for special buses for the IT workers on that day.

Unfortunately, in the history of Bengal politics, Bhattacharjee became a tragic hero. He wanted industrialisation but he could not convince his party.

There was conflict between the party and the government.

He once told me that the transition from agriculture to industry is a natural direction of a society.

He said he realised that his party will have to pay a social cost if it loses out on the support base of farmers but just for the sake of electoral gains, he cannot say no to industry.

Bhattacharjee got support from a section of media while former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called him the best Chief Minister of the country. Several media reports called him ‘Xi Jinping of West Bengal’ but his party was not ready to sacrifice vote bank politics. The party leadership could not convince the mass and there was an apparent communication error. Farmers were unhappy and agitated.

His party leadership of Prakash Karat objected to his policies. Eventually, he lost the election to Mamata Banerjee.

On matters of simplicity, Buddha babu was a trailblazer. There was a proposal that as a Chief Minister he should shift to a designated CM bungalow, and the Intelligence even chose one such bungalow in South Kolkata but he refused to shift from his humble abode at 59 Palm Avenue where he breathed his last on Thursday.

Sarbani, a party comrade, told me that in Bhattacharjee’s last years he developed a blurry vision and completely retracted from social life but never lost touch with reality. He used to hear news on television and his family read him news articles.

On Wednesday, I learnt that Advaniji, who is 96 years old, had to be admitted to hospital again and on Thursday morning, Bhattacharjee, who was 80, passed away.