The work of the spirited intellectuals
was only to applaud and cheer –
India was so immoral then.
– Kailash Vajpeyi in "A Ritual of Naming"
He was a good atheist, the revolutionary Bhadralok of Bengal. He wanted his corneas to outlive him, and wished that his body be used for scientific purposes. And, by and large, the last wishes of Jyoti Basu (1914-2010) were honoured. However, the learned ideologue forgot to expressly forbid a state funeral. So, his last rites were marked by a queer sight of military bands playing the national anthem, Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres singing the "Internationale", and some devout Hindu priests blowing inverted conch shells to ensure a safe passage of the departed soul towards eternity. Strange are the ways people deal with the dead – even someone as prominent as the world's first elected head of a communist government.
But when did Basu actually die? Official declarations mention that he breathed his last on 17 January 2010 at 11:47 in the morning at the AMRI Hospital in Calcutta, where he has been awaiting death for more than two weeks. In a front-page obituary in the Times of India, M J Akbar reminisced that Basu already considered himself dead a few months ago. In fact, his long march out of life probably began the day he handed over the reins of government a decade ago to Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on health grounds.
Basu must have writhed in pain as his successor began, in slow motion, to lose his grip over the state. The lowest point in the life of the communist leader must have been the controversy over land deals in Singur and Nandigram. Things that Bhattacharya did in the name of industrialisation of the state alienated the alliance that Basu has assiduously built between the metropolitan intelligentsia, the urban dispossessed and the rural poor. From there on, it has been a downhill journey for the CPI (M). The poor have gone to the Naxalites, the intelligentsia to Congress, and the lumpen proletariat have found a new saviour in Mamata Banerjee – the arch-populist with neither a social programme nor any ideology of political philosophy.