'Had Basu become PM, history would have changed'

In an apparent disagreement with his own party, senior CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Assembly Speaker H A Halim has said that had Jyoti Basu become the Prime Minister "the course of the country's history would have changed".

"Had Jyoti Basu become the prime minister the course of the country's history would have changed," Halim said at the unveiling of a portrait of Basu at the Assembly premises.

"But since he was a loyal party member he accepted the decision not to be become the Prime Minister," he added.

Expelled CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee, giving Jyoti Basu memorial lecture on the occasion of the former chief minister's 97th birth anniversary, said Basu was entreated in 1996 by the leaders of the United Front in Delhi to be the Prime Minister of India.

"Of course, what followed is history known to all," Chatterjee said.

Basu would have become India's prime minister in 1996 had not the party ruled against his taking charge of the United Front government.

Chatterjee also praised Basu for setting an outstanding example of how to run a coalition government.

"And, for this quality particularly, apart from his stature as a principled politician who had earned the love and respect of the millions of his countrymen and his considerable success as chief minister of West Bengal that he was entreated repeatedly in 1996 by the leaders of the United Front in Delhi to be the prime minister of India."

Chatterjee said, Basu was never dogmatic, although he had clear notions of what he and his party wanted to achieve and never applied partisan standards in contentious matters.

Basu, he said, constantly exhorted party workers and leaders not to lose touch with the people and work for their welfare.
Chatterjee said that as a pragmatic leader he realized that although he and his party and the Left Front were opposed to liberalisation of the economy and globalisation, he could not ignore and refuse to utilise the existing laws and the opportunities to usher in industrialisation of the state.

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, who was invited to the programme, did not show up apparently because of the invitation to Somnath Chatterjee to the event.

Chatterjee was expelled from CPI(M) in July 2008 after he defied the party diktat to quit as Lok Sabha Speaker ahead of the trust vote sought by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.