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COMRADE
NUMBER 2
New CM
Bhattacharya would rather be an intellectual
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| Basu
nurtured Bhattacharya |
If
Atal Bihari Vajpayee has his roots in Hindi literature, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
is a member of the Bengali literati. The difference is that Vajpayee is
a closet poet whereas Bhattacharya, for most of the time he spent in the
Jyoti Basu Cabinet, promoted the "intellectual" causes. Like
building Nandan, a film complex modelled on the British Film Institute;
Bangla Akademi, a book publishing organisation and Rabindra Bhavans in
all districts.
Basu took
him into the cabinet in 1977 on the recommendation of the late Pramode
Dasgupta, powerful chief of the state party. The former chief minister,
not much given to the niceties of Bengali culture, just about accepted
Bhattacharya and was aghast at the younger man's aversion to the company
of industrialists. Bhattacharya also had frequent mood swings. He quit
his job in 1993 after a tiff with a senior bureaucrat and spent the out-of-job
days in a room in Nandan writing a play. Basu got him back into the Cabinet
the following year and Bhattacharya too began maturing as a politician.
He shed his "class" distrust of businessmen somewhat.
As chief
minister, however, the 55-year-old Bhattacharya faces challenges that
are more than merely intellectual. The anti-CPI(M) campaign led by Mamata
Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress is touching a chord not merely in
Calcutta but in the remote villages too. In the nine-party Left Front,
Basu was the old patriarch whom everybody respected. Bhattacharya may
not find the going easy. Within the CPI(M) too, he is regarded as a nominee
of the headquarters at Alimuddin Street, a fact which is resented by Subhash
Chakarvarty, his less ideologically inclined cabinet colleague. Above
all, Bhattacharya will be watched by the party's wily state chief Anil
Biswas, arguably its 'big brother'.
Under the
imperious Basu, the Cabinet was a mere formality. But Bhattacharya spoke
to India Today about a need for "revival of the cabinet system",
with the chief minister to be the first among equals. Nice words; but
can the wordsmith deliver. The jury is out on that one.
Why
Buddha Won't be Smiling
Mamata Banerjee
 Is
more of a mass politician than Bhattacharya. Will give quite a battle
in the coming elections.
Subhash
Chakravarty
 Is
a Cabinet colleague with ideological hang-ups. Popular, ambitious.
Anil Biswas
 Is
the party strongman aspirant. He can be expected to keep Bhattacharya
on his toes. Prickly.
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How
can Non-Performing Assets of companies be cleared? By recovering what
you can, writes INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in
