The Gandhis and the communist

Arindam Sarkar

The Congress fell out with the CPI(M) after the latter withdrew support from the Congress-led UPA-II Government at the Centre over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal in 2008.

But one cannot forget the fact that it was former Chief Minister and communist patriarch Jyoti Basu who was instrumental in mobilising the support of the Left for the Congress in 2001 that facilitated the formation of the Congress-led UPA-I Government at the Centre.

In the summer of 2001, Jyoti Basu had called on AICC president Sonia at 10, Janpath in New Delhi to convey that the Left would support the Congress to form the government at the Centre.

Sonia Gandhi remembers this political overture. She is also aware that the relations between Jyoti Basu and the Gandhis have been beyond political ideology and the shades of green and red.

History records that way back in 1936 when Jyoti Basu went to the Inner Temple in London, he developed a strong friendship with Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. At that time, Jawaharlal Nehru was touring Europe to mobilize support for India’s Independence.

Jyoti Basu as secretary of Indian League and London Majlis, under Krishna Menon’s guidance, organized several meetings for Jawaharlal Nehru in London. 

An admirer of Harold Laski, Jyoti Basu along with other Indian communists like Bhupesh Gupta, Snehangshu Acharya, Renuka Roy, Rajni Patel, Nikhil Chakrabarty and Mohan Kumaramangalam spent a lot of time discussing politics with Feroze and Indira.

The group also opposed Franco’s dictatorship in the Spanish Civil War and extended solidarity towards Dolores Ibaruri whose “They shall not pass” is now a legendary slogan. At this time, Jyoti Basu and other communists also supported Indira-Feroze courtship, despite Nehru’s strong reservations against it.

Back home in 1941, Basu-Gandhi ties remained intact. But it was the dismissal of the first communist government in Kerala in 1959 by the then Congress president Indira Gandhi that created a political gulf between Jyoti Basu and Indira Gandhi.

However, Jawaharlal Nehru’s non-aligned foreign policy, support to Gamal Abdul Nasser in the 1956 Suez crisis, tilt towards USSR and strong socialist views kept Basu close to Nehru and Indira.

This bonhomie however was broken in 1962 during the Chinese aggression. Jyoti Basu like several other communists was arrested after being dubbed as “pro-China”.  In 1964, the communist party in India split and Jyoti Basu as a CPI(M) leader called on Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. It is learnt that from this stage the young Rajiv and Sanjay used to call Basu as, “Jyoti Uncle”.

Jyoti Basu did not approve of the dismissal of the United Front Government in Bengal in 1969 by the Centre. Indira Gandhi was then the prime minister and Jyoti Basu was the deputy chief minister of the coalition government in Bengal.

But soon they got over the misunderstanding and during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Indira and Basu held several meetings to assess the situation in the eastern theatre of India.

It is because of Jyoti Basu’s good relations with Indira that he escaped imprisonment during the Emergency in 1975. In 1980, the relationship between Prime Minister Iindira Gandhi and Chief Minister Jyoti Basu improved further. No wonder, the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 was deeply shocked Jyoti Basu.

On that day, Jyoti Basu who was attending a CITU conference at Tuticorin in Kerala took a flight at 2 pm for New Delhi. He was beside Rajiv Gandhi when he took over as prime minister. Rajiv’s prime ministership saw the laying of the foundation stones for many big projects in Bengal such as Bakreswar Thermal Power project and Haldia Petrochemicals Limited.

Though the Bofors scam in 1988-1989 saw Jyoti Basu and the communists firing a lot of missiles towards the Congress, the Bengal CM kept away from directly attacking Rajiv Gandhi.

After Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu adopted the same line towards Sonia Gandhi. When political compulsions demanded, the Congress became a pariah for the CPI(M), but Jyoti Basu refused to hit out against Sonia Gandhi.

In fact, it was Jyoti Basu, who first said publicly that Sonia Gandhi was an Italian by birth, but since she was an Indian citizen by marriage she could become an MP. Sonia Gandhi did not forget this, or the umpteen dinner meetings that Jyoti Basu and Indira Gandhi had at 7 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi.

For 70 years, Jyoti Basu and the Gandhis shared a very close relationship. Different politics did not upset the personal equations of the giants of the Indian democracy. And personal equations did not affect the political stances of the communist and his Congress friends.