Basu: Not out

Calcutta/New Delhi, Feb. 22: Jyoti Basu today repeated his desire to leave the politburo on health grounds but the CPM is unlikely to let him go.

“I don’t want to continue since my health does not permit anymore. I’ve been telling this to my party. I won’t be able to attend the forthcoming party Congress also,” the party patriarch said after its state secretariat meeting this morning.

This is the first time Basu would miss a congress. It is to be held in Coimbatore next month.

The 93-year-old, however, left it to the party to decide when he should call it a day. “Now the party will decide what to do.”

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat told The Telegraph in Delhi: “The party will discuss all these issues at the congress and take the appropriate decisions.”

Asked if Karat’s predecessor Harkishen Singh Surjeet had also written to the party expressing a similar desire, Karat said: “There is no such letter.”

Basu and Surjeet are the last of the old guards who formed the CPM after the split in the undivided CPI in 1964 and have been in the politburo since.

Basu still attends the weekly state secretariat meeting and is the biggest crowd-puller for the party in public meetings in Calcutta. But he has been skipping politburo meetings in Delhi for some time.

The frail leader, who had injured himself several times in falls at home, now apologises at rallies for not being able to stand and speak.

But the CPM will not let him retire like the legendary Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 86, who announced on Tuesday that he would not be the President again.

The reasons for Basu’s likely re-election to the politburo are not emotional but political. According to a party central committee member, Basu is “mentally alert and active like any young leader unlike Surjeet”.

Surjeet is younger to Basu but ailing.

“Communist parties all over the world want continuity but Surjeet is likely to be dropped this time because of his illness. Jyotibabu’s presence is vital to ensure that continuity, not only for the Bengal unit but also the entire party,” the central committee member said.

Surjeet had earlier stopped Basu from retiring, saying: “We will retire together.”

The Bengal leadership is keen on Basu’s continuation for his calming effect on Congress-CPM relations.

“With tension between us and the Congress on the Indo-US nuclear deal persisting, we need an umpire who carries weight not only within the party and other left parties but with the Congress leadership,” said another central committee member.