Jyoti Basu and Rajiv Gandhi at the laying of the foundation stone for Haldia Petrochemicals

Jyoti Basu’s greatest strength was his ability “to combine practical knowledge with basic theoretical understanding” — most evident in the way he pushed for the industrialisation of Bengal, said state industries minister Nirupam Sen, offering a cogent analysis of Basu’s unique contributions minus the usual homilies.

Sen who, along with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has faced the brunt of criticism for pushing for industry at the cost of agriculture, repeatedly emphasised that the industrialisation initiative went back a long way and Basu was its “principal architect”.

Sen told The Telegraph: “During his long tenure as chief minister, at every crucial juncture, Jyoti Basu played a key role — whether in terms of policies of the Left Front government or in terms of responding to the issues of the masses with his strong common sense and vast experience of working among the people.”

Rebutting the frequent claim that Basu was not “theoretically strong”, Sen said: “My experience is that whenever a crucial question of policy came up before the party, he didn’t hesitate to take a firm stand and ultimately, the entire party supported the stand.”

In this context, he recalled the fierce debate inside the CPM on the question of setting up joint ventures with private capital at the state party conference in 1985. The redoubtable party theoretician B.T. Ranadive was present at the conference. Without going into the details of that particular debate, Sen made it clear that Basu finally won the day.

Similarly, it was Basu who was the main architect of the path-breaking Industrial Policy Resolution adopted by the Left Front government in 1994 “which we are pursuing since then”, Sen said.

The 1994 resolution which shed earlier inhibitions against private investment — both foreign and indigenous — to industrialise the state was a result of Basu’s foresight and ability to grasp a situation before others could see it, Sen indicated.

Elaborating, he said that once the Centre began pursuing economic reforms in 1991, dismantling the licence raj and focusing on private capital rather than the public sector, Basu realised that “if you have to run the state and give relief to the people, you have to invite private capital, including foreign direct investment”.

Earlier, when the Centre had a stranglehold over state governments and actively discriminated against Bengal through the licensing regime and the freight equali- sation policy, Basu played a “historic role” in leading the battle to recast Centre-state relations.

“It is he who actually inspired all the non-Congress state governments in the mid-1980s and mobilised them, and the entire issue of Centre-state relations came to the forefront of the political struggle of our country,” Sen said. “Actually, the Centre was forced to set up the Sarkaria Commission which was the most important outcome of the struggle which was led by no other person than Jyoti Basu.”

But the issue of federalism was never just a theoretical construct because “he related it to the day-to-day livelihood of the people (by explaining that because of the Centre’s discrimination, the people of the state suffered)”.

Sen went on to say: “A slogan becomes effective when it becomes a people’s slogan and Jyoti Basu knew this better than anyone else.”

Just as Basu played a pivotal role in strengthening the federal principle within the framework of an “uncompromising commitment” to the unity and integrity of India, his other great natio- nal contribution was in the fight against communal forces.

“I have seen how strong he was in regard to tackling any kind of communal strife which tried to raise its ugly head in our state — he carried forward the glorious tradition of our state in upholding communal harmony which has become an example to the whole country.”

On a personal note, Sen recalled the warmth of Basu as a leader and comrade despite his much-vaunted reputation of being distant and aloof. “From the time we first entered politics, Jyoti Basu was one of the biggest leaders and the degree of his popularity among the masses was unimaginable. When we were working in the mofussil areas, we had the kind of enthusiasm at meetings where Basu was a speaker.”

During the early 1960s when the majority of communist leaders were in jail, Basu alone moved around from district to district — “we were very young but came in close touch with him from then”.

Sen, who worked his way up to become the powerful CPM secretary of Burdwan district — the Red Fortress for decades — before moving to Calcutta, said: “As a person, it was said that Jyoti Basu always kept a distance from other people. In reality, that was not the case. I had the opportunity to be close to him when I was the Burdwan secretary and he was the CM. Every time he visited the district, I used to meet him and we discussed the problems of the district, both political and administrative. He was very active, his memory very sharp.”

But for Sen, a man schooled in the Leninist principles of party organisation and discipline, Basu’s “unparalleled” quality was “his extraordinary sense of party discipline”. “He listened to every other opinion and never hesitated to express his own. But once a decision was taken by the party, he carried out the line even when he did not agree with it.”