Interview Of The Week - HARKISHEN SINGH SURJEET
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‘We will replace Basu at a given opportunity.
He won’t contest elections.’

CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet was to visit Calcutta on September 14. But Jyoti Basu’s declaration to the world at large that he’ll hang up his boots on September 15, after a full season of hinting at it and then retracting, forced a change in schedule. A Chief Minister of 23 years going away from the scene was bad enough. Coupled with that the looming spectre of a Mamata Banerjee moving in for a kill, demanding President’s rule in West Bengal. It undoubtedly called for Surjeet’s intervention. Surjeet talks to Santwana Bhattacharya about law and order in Basu’s Bengal and gives his own reasons for stopping the CM from stepping down. Excerpts:

The law and order problem in West Bengal has become a national issue. Reports by central teams talk of lynchmobs, political vendetta, killings... How do you justify this growing violence in a state ruled by the CPI(M)’s most well-known figure, Jyoti Basu?
The NDA teams’ report and Defence Minister George Fernandes’ later report are both politically motivated. It is being touted around by a government led by a party with no principles (BJP). They are using the Central Government machinery to placate that adamant woman (Mamata Banerjee). Otherwise, how can a senior minister act so irresponsibly, denounce an entire state after visiting three villages for two hours? The first drama, calling for President’s rule, was tailor-made for the benefit of the Trinamool. He enacted the second act to placate the TDP, by letting (TDP’s MP) Venugopalachari release a report that suits their stand, which is firmly against Article 356. At the same time, please note, Chandrababu Naidu is facing a widespread struggle launched by the Left against the TDP’s anti-people policies in Andhra Pradesh.

But there are newspaper reports, photographs of women and children openly moving around with fire-arms in interior villages of Midnapore, places which are yet to get regular electricity or water supply. How do you explain this?
Midnapore has 48 police station, 54 blocks. What is being reported by an imaginative press in West Bengal, and being blown out of all proportion by the BJP-led government at the Centre with sweeping generalities on law and order, involves three villages. The people who had left their villages after the clashes are coming back, they are being rehabilitated. It was a case of three villages, in a district huge enough to send five MPs and 37 MLAs. That woman thinks she can become the Chief Minister of West Bengal with the help of her paid goondas, leading a party of anti-socials! It is a joke. The BJP will finish her and all other regional allies in due course. It has come through in (Atal Behari) Vajpayee’s assurance to the VHP in New York.

The Centre has repeatedly asked West Bengal to furnish a reply to its queries on the state’s law and order situation. But Basu delayed on that count.
A reply needs time. It cannot be given in a day. But there are serious discrepancies in the Home Minister’s (L.K. Advani) letters. Advani cannot make up his mind which districts are to be declared disturbed. In one letter he refers to Hoogly, in another to 24-Parganas. Then there is the Venugopalachari report, which only talks about Midnapore. Fernandes added three more districts—Birbhum, Bankura, Hoogly—to their list after a two-hour visit! It shows they are spreading misinformation.
u There are also doubts about the functioning of the electoral machinery in West Bengal. Mamata has reiterated that free and fair elections are impossible under Left rule.

What else can you expect from her? Go back to any election results. The Opposition parties have been getting 42-50 per cent vote from different parts of the state. How were they getting those votes if the electoral machinery was not functioning properly? They know they can never impose President’s rule, their regional allies will not allow it. They are just making empty noises.

If it is all an empty threat, why did you rush to Calcutta to stop Basu from resigning? Given his health, how long do you think Basu can bail you out?
I went to Calcutta to decide the date of our national convention in Trivandrum. There is no time-frame (for the change of guard). We have named Buddhadev Bhattacharya as Deputy CM, it’s also been decided that Basu is not going to contest the elections. What else do you want? A communist does not retire, he will continue to serve the party. Basu is a leader of great stature, an able administrator whom the Opposition also wanted as prime minister. All because of his experience.

The party did not let him become the prime minister.
That is another matter. That could have been a mistake. Ours is a democratic party with seven lakh members whose views are respected.

By stopping Basu from stepping down, aren’t you implicitly expressing doubts about Buddhadev’s leadership abilities? As it is, law and order—the issue of the moment—is under Buddha. It doesn’t show him in good light.
The law and order failure is a myth. We will replace him (Basu) at a given opportunity. It takes some time for the new man to grow into the post.

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