Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also known as Buddha Babu (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian
Communist politician and a former member of the
Politburo of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
. He served as the
7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011.
He is a senior leader of
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
, having served as a member of the politburo between 2002 and 2015. Bhattacharjee is known for leading a spartan and honest livelihood.
Early life
Born in 1944 in north
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee belongs to a family which had produced another famous son. Revolutionary poet
Sukanta Bhattacharya was his father's cousin. A former student of
Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya
Sailendra Sircar VidyalayaIndian National Commission for Co-operation with UNESCO.,''Report of teachers' workshops on education for international understanding'', Publisher Indian National Commission for Unesco, 1964, p.97 is affiliated to the ...
, Bhattacharjee had his ancestral house in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. He studied Bengali literature at the
Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honors), and joined a government school as a teacher.
Early political career
He joined the CPI(M) as a primary member in 1966. Besides taking active part in the food movement, he also supported
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
's cause in 1968. In 1968, he was elected state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI(M) that was later merged into the
Democratic Youth Federation of India. He served in the position till 1981, when he was succeeded by Boren Basu. He was mentored by
Pramod Dasgupta.
Political career
Bhattacharjee was elected to the state committee of CPI(M) in 1972 and was inducted in the state secretariat in 1982.
At first he was the
MLA of
Kashipur-Belgachia from 1977 to 1982. Bhattacharjee served as Minister in West Bengal Cabinet as Minister of Information and Public Relations between 1977-1982.
He lost the assembly elections in 1982 from Cossipur constituency in 1982 by a slender margin. He was made a permanent invitee to the central committee of CPI(M) in 1984 and was made a member in 1985.
Later he became the
MLA of
Jadavpur
Jadavpur is a southern neighbourhood of Kolkata in the district of Kolkata of West Bengal, India. Jadavpur is one of the important junctions in South Kolkata. Jadavpur University and a number of research institutes of national and internation ...
in 1987 and continued to represent the constituency till 2011. He was re-inducted in the cabinet in 1987 minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held other departments, such as urban development and tourism, on temporary basis.
He was included in the cabinet in 1991 as Information and Cultural Affairs minister, however, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993 following differences with the chief minister on the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption. He returned to the cabinet a few months later.
In 1996, after the
1996 West Bengal election Bhattacharjee was handed over the responsibility of home and police department, owing to the old health of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. In 1999, he was made the Deputy Chief minister
Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal of West Bengal.
On November 6, 2000, he was elevated to the position of Chief Minister after Basu stepped down. In 2002, he was elected to the politburo of CPI(M).
Chief Minister of West Bengal
Bhattacharjee was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal and was sworn in a solemn ceremony at Raj Bhawan.
As Chief Minister, he lead the CPI(M)-led Left Front
Left Front (West Bengal)
The Left Front ( bn, বামফ্রন্ট; ) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was formed in January 1977, the founding parties being the Communist Party of India (Marxist), All India ...
to two successive election victory in 2001 and 2006. In 2001, Left Front secured 199 out of 294 assembly seats and in 2006, it improved the tally to 235 out of 294 seats.
He started an industrialization drive in West Bengal to bring in more more investment and jobs in the states. Under his government West Bengal saw investments in IT and services sector.
However, he took the biggest risk of his political career by embarking upon the industrialization drive to change the face of West Bengal, which had agriculture as primary source of income. He deviated from the standard Marxist doctrine to invite foreign and national capital to set up factories in West Bengal. Notable among them was the world's cheapest car,
Tata Nano
The Tata Nano is a compact city car that was manufactured and marketed by Indian automaker Tata Motors over a single generation, primarily in India, as an inexpensive rear-engined hatchback intended to appeal to current riders of motorcycles a ...
, from a small hamlet near Kolkata called Singur. There were other proposals too, such as country's largest integrated steel plant in Salboni, West Midanpore district by Jindal group, and a
chemical hub In India, Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions (PCPIRs), originally known as Mega-Chemical Industrial Estates (MCIES) or chemical hubs, are special economic zones intended to facilitate production of petroleum and petrochemical ...
at
Nayachar after it faced agrarian resistance in
Nandigram
Nandigram is a census town in the Nandigram I Community Development Block of the Haldia subdivision in the Purba Medinipur district of the Indian state of West Bengal.
In 2007, the West Bengal government allowed the Salim Group to set up a ch ...
.
However, his plans backfired, and his party, along with its front partners, suffered heavy losses in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. In the
2011 state assembly election he was defeated by former
Chief Secretary of his own government, and the
Trinamool congress
The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...
candidate Manish Gupta by 16,684 votes.
He is the second
West Bengal Chief Minister to lose an election from his own constituency, after
Prafulla Chandra Sen
Prafulla Chandra Sen (10 April 1897 – 25 September 1990) was an Indian politician and freedom fighter. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1962 to 1967.
Background
Prafulla Chandra Sen was born in the village Senhati in the Khulna ...
in 1967.The Left Front saw a drubbing, securing just 62 seats out of 294. He resigned as Chief Minister on May 13, 2011.
Singur Tata Nano controversy and Nandigram violence
Events during his tenure as Chief Minister included attempts to industrialize West Bengal thwarted by the
TATA's
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company, headquartered in Mumbai, India, which is part of the Tata Group. The company produces passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses.
Formerly known as Tata Eng ...
leaving
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
in the face of the joint protests of the
Trinamool Congress
The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...
,
Socialist Unity Centre of India
The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre", is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in India. The party was founded by Shib ...
, and
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
, the
land acquisition dispute in
Singur, the
Nandigram incident, and the Netai incident.
In January 2006 the
Supreme Court of India issued notices to Left Front Government ministers including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and others in relation to land allotments made in the
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
township in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Government came under heavy criticism for
police action against demonstrators in Nandigram in East Midnapore. He was criticized not only by opposition parties (such as the
Trinamool congress
The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...
,
Party of Democratic Socialism,
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
,
Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation
The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (abbreviated: CPI(ML)L or CPI-ML(L) or CPIML Liberation) also referred to as the Liberation Group, is a Communist political party in India.
History
In 1973 the original Commun ...
,
Communist Revolutionary League of India
Communist Revolutionary League of India (CRLI) is a political party in the Indian state of West Bengal. The party is led by Ashim Chatterjee, former student leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Chattejee broke with Charu Majum ...
and others) and other Left Front coalition allies like
Communist Party of India,
Revolutionary Socialist Party (India)
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) is a communist party in India. The party was founded on 19 March 1940 by Tridib Chaudhuri and has its roots in the Bengali liberation movement Anushilan Samiti and the Hindustan Socialist Republican ...
and
Forward Bloc
The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party ...
, who threatened to back out from the ministry on this issue, but also by his mentor and the state's former chief minister, Jyoti Basu.
On March 15, 2007 Basu criticized Bhattacharjee for failing to restrain the police in Nandigram. Bhattacharjee expressed regret for the shootings, but claimed that he permitted police action because Nandigram was an "area where there had been no rule of law and no presence of an administration for not one, two or 10 days but for two-and-a-half months, and many hundreds of villagers left Nandigram, and took shelter in a state relief camp outside Nandigram." Actually Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declared that land in Nandigram won't be acquired by ordering the Nandigram notification to be torn apart.
Still police were not allowed to enter Nandigram. Roads were dug up, preventing administration from entering the area.
The CPI(M) declared that they were totally behind Bhattacharjee and had drawn up "plans" to placate his critics in the Left Front. His government was also criticized by Left supporters for failing to protect the Left party workers (including his own party CPI(M)) who came under assault from political opponents - both right wing and ultra-left wing Maoists during the post-Nandigram turmoil until the end of 7th Left Front Government.
Later life
Despite his calls to be relieved of party responsibilities, Bhattacharjee was retained as a member of the politburo and the central committee in the 20th party congress, organised at Kozhikode in 2012.
He was relieved of his posts on the Politburo and Central Committee at the 21st party congress, organised at Vishakhapatnam in 2015. The party congress elected him as a special invitee to the Central Committee. However, he was persuaded to remain a member of the state committee and the state secretariat till 2018.
He continued to appear for party campaign and programs till 2017.
In 2018, due to continuing ill-health he stepped down from the state committee and the state secretariat. He was later named as a special invitee to the state committee. In 2019, he made a attempt to attend a mega-rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata, however, due to breathing difficulties he could not appear on the stage and remained seated in his car.
In 2022, he stepped down from all leadership roles, just retaining his primary membership of the party. However, Bhattacharjee remains a senior leader of CPI(M).
The Padma Bhushan controversy
In January 2022,
the Central Government of India bestowed Bhattacharjee with
the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India. However, he declined the award and claimed that he had not been informed about the award. He said a call was made to his residence earlier in the day, while adding there is no provision of taking consent for giving Padma awards.
Later, the
CPI(M)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
General Secretary
Sitaram Yechury
Sitaram Yechury (born 12 August 1952) is an Indian marxist politician and a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest communist party in India.
Ea ...
clarified Bhattacharjee's stance in a tweet which said
Former Party PB olitburomember & WB est BengalCM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya hattacharjeehad this to say on the Padma Bhushan award announcement. “I don't know anything about Padman Bhusan award, none has said anything about it. If I have been given Padma Bhushan I refuse to accept it.”
Personal Life
He has been married to Meera Bhattacharjee and the couple has a daughter Suchetana Bhattacharjee. The family has lived in a two-room apartment in Ballygunge, Kolkata.
He stayed at the two-room apartment for decades and operated as Chief Minister from the same residence.
Bhattacharjee has been suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other old age- related ailments for quite some.
Published works
* ''বিপন্ন জাহাজের এক নাবিকের গল্প''- Translated works of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1994)- On February 28, 1955, a Colombian Navy ship "Caladus" was hit by a storm in the Caribbean Sea. The ship started from Mobile, a port city in the US state of Alabama. The destination was the port of Cartagena, Colombia. The ship made it safely to the port of Cartagena but only one person survived. Buddhadev Bhattacharya translated the book 'The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor'
* ''এই আমি মায়াকভস্কি'' - Translated works of Russian-Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1994)
* ''চিলিতে গোপনে''- Translated works of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1996)- September 11, 1973 was a dark day in Chile's modern history. General Pinochet's military seized power in a violent coup against the left-wing government of Salvador Allende. Thousands of people were sent into exile. Attacks were concentrated on communists, socialists and leftists. Famous Chilean director Miguel Litín was exiled from the country soon after the coup. Later his name was included in the declared list of undesirable persons. Twelve years later, he entered Chile under the guise of a false identity to film his country and its people in the ravages of military rule. He narrated the harrowing story to his close friend, the renowned novelist Gabriel García Márquez. Marquez recorded the expedition in his book 'Clandestine in Chile'. Buddhadev Bhattacharya translated the book 'Clandestine in Chile'.
* ''ফিরে দেখা (প্রথম পর্ব)'' () (2015)- Not an out and out reminiscence,this book is e flashback„ with some well-constructed montages of a momentous past.It propels the readers to early five years of the Left Front Government in West Bengal(1977-1982)
* ''ফিরে দেখা (দ্বিতীয় পর্ব)'' () (2017)- This is a frank and concise account of the last decade (2001-2011) of the Left Front Goverment in West Bengal, India, by the communist leader who headed it.The author does not avoid controversial issues like the movement at Singur and Nandigram against his government while focusing on developmental goals and achievements of which he and the Left can be justly proud.
* ''নাৎসি জার্মানির জন্ম ও মৃত্যু'' ()- (2018) The book consists of 14 chapters excluding the preface and appendix. So that – from this Hitler to the last days of Hitler. From the Prime Minister to the Fuehrer, Russia's struggle for self-defense, the fall of Germany and Italy, the concentration camps, etc., are told.
* ''স্বর্গের নিচে মহাবিশৃঙ্খলা'' () (2019)- In this 72-page book, the former chief minister of the state has highlighted the evolution of a huge history - from the construction of the great wall of China to prevent the Mongolian invasion to the world power of the Chinese information technology company 'Alibaba' in this era of globalization.
References
External links
Danger of Fascism: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharjee, Buddhadeb
1944 births
20th-century atheists
21st-century atheists
Living people
Presidency University, Kolkata alumni
Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from West Bengal
Anti-Americanism
Indian communists
Indian anti-capitalists
Indian atheists
Anti-capitalists
Communist rulers
Anti-imperialism
Politicians from Kolkata
Chief Ministers of West Bengal
University of Calcutta alumni
Marxist writers
Marxist theorists
Marxist humanists
Chief ministers from Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Deputy chief ministers of West Bengal