Buddhadeb needs to take care of his ‘mamata’!

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the Communist Chief Minister of West Bengal, has invested enormous political capital to industrialize the state and create tens of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief of Trinamool Congress, dashed his hopes and the future of West Bengal by agitating against the Tata’s Nano Car Project and loosing it to the State of Gujarat. Should we feel sorry for him or West Bengal? Prakash Karat, General Secretary of CPI (M) and Buddhadeb’s party colleague, has done the same thing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the country in general. With that yardstick, there is no difference between Mamata Banerjee and Prakash Karat, they both indulge in ’employment genocide’! The people of West Bengal are absolutely responsible for this sorry state of affairs by voting for criminals like Mamata and Karat. Maharashtra could face similar fate by encouraging thugs like Balasaheb and Raj Thackeray. The signs are all there.

The father of Modern West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was born on March 1, 1944 in North Calcutta to a prominent Bengali family. He did his schooling at Sailendra Sirkar Vidyalaya and then went on to graduate from Presidency College, Kolkata in Bengali in 1964. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1966 as a primary member. Bhattacharya started his career as a teacher at the Dum Dum Adarsh Vidya Mandir. Besides supporting the Vietnam’s cause in 1968, he took active part in the food movement. He was appointed State Secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI (M) that was later merged into the Democratic Youth Federation of India. Buddhadeb was first elected in 1977 as Legislative Assembly Member from the Kashipur constituency. That was the first time the CPI (M)-led Left Front came to power in West Bengal. He was given the charge of Ministry of Information and Culture. After losing the 1982 assembly election from Kashipur, he changed his constituency to Jadavpur in 1987 and won comfortably.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was promoted as the Chief Minister of West Bengal on November 6, 2000, when Jyoti Basu decided to step down after serving as CM for 23 long years. This took place well ahead of the State Assembly elections due in May 2001. Buddhadeb enjoyed an image of a clean administrator and that once again brought victory to his party. The Left Front government was sworn in for the 6th term in May 2001, though with a much reduced majority. Bengal’s economy has been significantly liberalized after Buddhadeb Bhattacharya becoming the chief minister. He has brought in a lot of foreign investment to West Bengal.