You may say he was a dreamer. But he was not the only one. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee dreamed of an industrially-developed West Bengal, and with him dreamed his state. He saw his dream shattered and rejected by the state and died with a broken heart.
A quintessentially Bengali bhadralok, Buddhababu, as he was known in the state, left behind a complex legacy of both development and controversy. He was applauded for championing development and attracting investment to the state. His tenure was also marked by controversies, including the Nandigram and Singur incidents, which sparked political unrest and debate over land acquisition and industrialisation policies.
Bhattacharjee, nephew of the acclaimed poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, was born in north Kolkata on March 1, 1944. Sukanta, renowned as the ‘rebel poet’, profoundly influenced Buddhadeb.
Bhattacharjee joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1966, actively took part in the food movement and campaigned against America during the Vietnam War. He began as an organiser of the youth movement, and by the time the late 1960s came around, he became the secretary of the West Bengal State Committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). Mentored by CPI(M) stalwart Pramode Dasgupta, young Bhattacharjee soon emerged as the chosen heir to chief minister Jyoti Basu and was introduced into electoral politics by the party.
Young Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee addressing a public rally. Photo: By arrangement.
He won his first election in 1977 from the Kasipur assembly constituency. From 1977 to 1982, he served as the Minister of Information and Public Relations in the West Bengal state cabinet, a division later renamed the Department of Information and Culture. After losing the 1982 assembly election, he won again from the Jadavpur constituency in 1987 and became the Minister of Information and Culture, a position he held until 2011.
A brief resignation in 1993, reportedly due to disagreements with CM Basu, sparked widespread speculation. However, he returned to the cabinet a few months later. Following the 1996 Bengal election, Bhattacharjee was entrusted with the crucial home and police portfolios due to Basu’s declining health. In 1999, he was elevated to the position of deputy CM and in November 2000, months before the assembly election, he took over the state’s mantle after Basu stepped down.
In the 2001 assembly elections, despite the perception that the opposition leader Mamata Banerjee had the momentum, the Left Front government led by Bhattacharjee came to power. The next five years would see Bhattacharjee’s transformation into a leader of the Bengali middle-class. Dressed in starched and spotless dhoti-kurta and reciting Tagore poems, Buddhadeb promised an industrial renaissance. He understood the necessity to check the brain drain happening in the state and formulated a new IT policy which led to a 70% growth in the sector during his first full term. His impeccable integrity and drive for development did not go unnoticed. The then-richest man in India, Azim Premji, ranked him the best chief minister of the country. The epithet “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is a breath of fresh air” became a common refrain in Kolkata and beyond.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with Satyajit Ray and Utpal Dutt. Photo: By arrangement.
The 2006 assembly election was a foregone conclusion. The Left Front swept the election riding on Bhattacharjee’s popularity. He took the oath as CM again and on that same day, announced a factory of the Tata Group’s Rs 1 lakh car in Singur, aimed at accelerating industrialisation. However, cracks were showing. A CSDS post-poll analysis showed that the rural poor – the original vote bloc of CPI(M) – had moved away from the party. As did Muslim voters.
As chief minister, Bhattacharjee had coined the phrase “do it now”, but the drive to rapidly industrialise the state pushed the government to acquire agricultural land quickly and sometimes forcefully. The policy backfired. For the small and marginal farmers, the biggest beneficiaries of the Left Front’s land reform, it amounted to betrayal. The government’s slogan of that time – “agriculture is our foundation, industry is our future,” was perceived as a threat to the symbiotic relationship between farmer and land. It sparked concern. The rural poor worried that it signalled a potential shift away from agrarian practices, disrupting the age-old harmony between farmers and the land.
On March 14, 2007, police fired in Nandigram, resulting in the deaths of 14 villagers. The Singur-Nandigram incidents sparked continuous controversy for Bhattacharjee, with signs of administrative weakening. Bhattacharjee apologised and took responsibility of the Nandigram incident. In September 2007, the death of teacher Rizwanur Rahman and senior police officials’ alleged involvement in opposing his interfaith marriage created widespread protests in Kolkata and further alienated the Muslim community. Author Taslima Nasrin’s ouster from the state and controversial attempt to regain Nandigram by CPI(M) cadres deepened the crisis.
In the 2008 panchayat elections, the Left Front faced setbacks, losing the East Medinipur and South 24 Parganas district councils to the opposition Trinamool. CPI(M)’s withdrawal of support from the UPA-2 further alienated Bhattacharjee and his party from the electorates.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee addressing a Left Front Rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in 2015. Photo: By arrangement.
The Left Front suffered further in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. This marked the beginning of Bhattacharjee’s administration losing its grip on the state’s situation, with party workers and supporters starting to defect. The Left Front continued to bleed, culminating in the 2011 assembly elections, which saw Bhattacharjee losing his seat to former bureaucrat Manish Gupta.
After the 2011 election defeat, Buddhadeb’s health began to deteriorate. He gradually withdrew from party activities and stopped visiting the party office for studies. His eyesight weakened, and he struggled with respiratory issues, requiring hospitalisation multiple times. His last public appearance was at the 2019 Left Front Brigade rally.
His two-room government flat on Palm Avenue remained his permanent residence. Even after becoming chief minister, he had refused to leave that address. He passed away in the same residence.
Palm Avenue residents remember a quiet and dignified man of impeccable manners. As chief minister, he displayed extraordinary consideration for his neighbours, restraining the usual security protocol to maintain their peace.
Bhattacharjee was a polarising figure, even within the Left. His vision for Bengal’s progress was much criticised and ultimately thwarted. Yet, 13 years after he left the Writers Building for the last time, Bengal’s economic woes have worsened. Despite tall claims by the present regime, not a single allegation against him was proven in the court of law. The state’s subsequent descent into joblessness, poverty, and corruption is a damning indictment of his critics. As they say in Bengal, his white starched dhoti-kurta remained spotless.
The last of the ‘Bhadrolok’ politician, he embodied a bygone era defined by civility and public service. West Bengal, once a bastion against political defections and large-scale corruption, has undergone a stark transformation since his tenure.
