A procession brought out in memory of Jyoti Basu in Malda on Monday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Darjeeling, Jan. 18: Jyoti Basu’s friendship with Krishna Singh Moktan blossomed in the dark dungeons of Bengal’s jails but when the politician later met the jailer, he rarely showed any emotion. For, Basu was a man of few words.

But when it was time to bid farewell to Moktan after an association of 35 years, the CPM patriarch, for the first time, could not hide his feelings. “Please keep in touch,” he had told Moktan.

Moktan had first met Basu when he was posted as the superintendent of Dum Dum Central Jail in 1965. Pakistan had attacked India then and many communist leaders were arrested under the “PD Act”.

“Twelve leaders, including Jyoti Basu, Pramode Dasgupta, Binay Konar and Ratanlal Brahmin were brought to the jail under the Preventive Detention Act,” said Moktan.

Among the group, Promode Dasgupta was the most jovial. “Early morning while doing the rounds, I used to greet Basu. He used to merely acknowledge my greetings. He looked very reflective, sharing very little with even his friends and spending most of the time reading books,” Moktan recalled.

For 17 days, Moktan used to do three rounds of the jail a day, always looking forward to conversations with Basu that were more than one line long. But the jailer could never get much out of him. “We were finally told to release the leaders at midnight and I thought my short interaction with Basu was over.”

A file picture of Moktan

But it was not to be. In 1973, when Moktan was the superintendent of Presidency Jail in Calcutta, Basu, along with 350 others, were again brought in. “We had to get 11 magistrates in jail to record the arrests. They were all lined up on the lawn and, as Basu came before the magistrate, he looked at me, again without any emotion, and asked for the jail code,” said 80- year-old Moktan.

Basu argued with the magistrates so that all of the arrested men were accorded the status of political prisoners. Once more, there were no long conversations. For one-and-a-half months, Moktan routinely greeted Basu only to get his traditional one-line responses.

“The rest of the prisoners, after getting their status, would talk about their rights and the quality of food but Basu never complained and always spoke little,” the former jail superintendent said.

The third meeting between Basu and Moktan was at Alipore Jail in 1975. Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency and many Left leaders were arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act.

This time, Basu told Moktan: “I have seen you earlier.”

But soon after, the government in the state changed and Moktan climbed up the professional ladder to become the deputy inspector-general (jails) in 1978. A year before, Basu had taken charge as chief minister.

“We used to meet regularly since then and every time we did, he simply used to say ‘We meet again’. There was no trace of emotion,” recounted Moktan.

In 1988, Moktan was to retire as inspector-general (jails) but Basu’s government refused to let him go. “I was given extensions for 10 years. Basu always wanted me to stay back and talked about Dr Mani Kumar Chhetri (also from Darjeeling). But in 1999, I decided to come back to my family in Darjeeling.”

After listening to Moktan’s plea to be released as IG, Basu, for the first time showed emotion. “He told me, please keep in touch.”

“I did call him up on his birthdays and visited him in 2004. For a small fry like me it was difficult to stay in touch consistently. I have always prayed for him on his birthdays and will continue to do so for his soul,” said Moktan.