Calcutta, Jan. 13: Neither age nor custom has staled his infinite appeal to his people.

1967 was the year when Jyoti Basu first addressed a rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds. Today, 40-odd years on, he sat there on the dais again, spoke for just about 15 minutes and left the meeting in what could possibly be his last hurrah at the Brigade.

But there was no doubt about one thing: that, at 93, he remains what he had always been for the CPM faithful — the star attraction at any party or Left rally in Bengal.

It wasn’t that Basu had been a particularly good orator or even the sort of rabble-rouser who would excite a crowd. In the past, the CPI had finer public speakers in men like Somnath Lahiri, Indrajit Gupta or Hiren Mukherjee.

Even the CPM, known less for its leaders’ intellectual abilities than for their organisational skills, had fiery speakers like Harekrishna Konar or Jyotirmoy Bosu.

Yet, the party crowd loved the plainspeaking, matter-of-fact and rather prosaic Basu like it loved no other leader. Today, the response to Basu from the mammoth gathering was pretty much what it has been for all these years.

And this despite the fact that he is no longer the focus of Bengal politics, which has passed on to his successor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

There was the usual stir in today’s crowd at the Brigade as his arrival was announced. One heard the same old slogan: “Red Salute to the Red Leader of Red Bengal” as he walked up the stairs to his seat on the dais.

No other leader in the CPM or any other Left party in Bengal is greeted with this slogan any more. And that’s not just because the once-deep red turned pink a long while ago. It’s mainly because no other leader has had the kind of mass popularity that Basu always had.

As always, his brief speech was unadorned and untouched by emotions. He quickly got to the issues that matter in Bengal’s politics today — industrialisation and the criticism it has generated, the need for unity in Left ranks and so on.

But there was none of the barbs at opponents his public speeches have been known for.

It would be wrong to see that as evidence of mellowing of the patriarch in his autumn. He may be 93 and frail, but he is in control of his mind. If he was not critical of the CPM’s partners in the Left Front or even of Mamata Banerjee, he knew that a conciliatory tone was the need of the hour.

But Basu’s mass appeal had never been because of what he said in public. It was more a presence, a chemistry that analysts commonly call charisma. Today’s show proved yet again that Basu’s age or health has not diminished his charisma to his flock.