Today is Jyoti Basu’s death anniversary. He died on 17th January 2010 in Kolkata. It was said About Basu, who was working as Chief Minister in West Bengal for 23 years, that he could become Prime Minister of India. Basu was born on July 8, 1914 in East Bengal (i.e. now bangladesh). He studied in the Catholic school of Calcutta. Then studied in St. Xavier’s College.
Then went to London to study the advocacy. In 1930, he joined the Communist Party of India. Soon he reached important positions in the party and then became Chief Minister of West Bengal. Basu’s government did many important things in the state. Jyoti Basu’s biography writer Surabhi Banerjee has mentioned in her book that Jyoti Basu had always wanted to be Prime Minister.
Govind Ranade, great nationalist, scholar, Credit for these things go to him
Although Basu himself had turned down the offer twice. But for the third time in 1996, he got an offer to become the Prime Minister. This time he was ready to become the Prime Minister. He had said that if the party permits, he will become the Prime Minister. But he was hurt when the party did not allow him for so. In fact, no single party got a majority in the center and had to form a coalition government. But Basu’s party could not agree on this.
Basu tried a lot to make his party become a part of the central government, but the party did not listen to him at all. Many members of the party were not prepared to make a part of the Congress-backed central government. Jyoti Basu later expressed displeasure in many interviews and had said that the party’s decision was the result of a political divide. Later it was also said that many members of the CPI (M) Central Committee had already decided that Basu was prevented from becoming the Prime Minister. The news continued that Basu was very unhappy with the party’s decision.
Let us tell you that even after the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Basu was offered to become the Prime Minister. These offerings were given to him by Chandrashekhar and Arun Nehru. The second chance came in 1990 when the VP Singh government fell in the center. Jyoti Basu was also in Rajiv Gandhi’s eyes. But Basu had refused.
