Lal Salaam!

I read last night about the loss of Jyoti Basu, undoubtedly who along with Vajpayee is among the last “good breed” of leaders we have left in our country. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch up with the news as tired body pushed me to sleep. However as I woke up today morning I couldn’t stop myself from watching the news, so much so that I decided against going for the first lecture. (anywhich ways watching and learning about Jyoti Basu was much better than Virus, no comparison actually!)
I caught up with news and thankfully NDTV was running a re-telecast of their special show on Jyoti Basu with all top leaders and thinkers joining in to share their thoughts. Pranab Mukherjee, Buddhadeb, Sitaram Yechury, N Ram, Tarun Das and Amartya Sen shared their views on the leader whom they unanimously called “the greatest” in the post independence era!

The program began with visuals of how Bimon Roy came out and announced the sad news. Choked he was and so was everyone else after having heard the news. Wailing people and shouts of Lal Salaam echoed around, as news persons gathered each and every visual that they could. They would have succeeded to make a news with just a simple one liner about the loss. That was the power of the leader which brought me to think about what exactly would you define a leader as, what are the characteristics?

Jyoti Basu was a Leader to everyone. He was a man of Principles who always weighed the Principles set by his comrades above his own preferences. That’s why he didn’t become the Prime Minister when he was invited him to, as his party decided against it. His thoughts though communist were never against the development of the region where he came from. The charisma that he had, would just not be confined to his people but also to his critics and media. In the words of Pranab Mukherjee,”He would definitely have been a good Prime Minister.” In the words of the media,”He was a man who complemented them for our efforts.” That is the reason why today we sit and notice the loss of this great man, who went on to become the longest serving Chief Minister of any state in India. At a time when we find it difficult to have a mandate for a single term, here was a guy who led his state for 2 decades! He was truly a Regional Leader of National stature.

What was also noteworthy was his ability to understand when to exit. Just yesterday, we had a senior person from the industry who came for a lecture and told us that as important it is to venture into something, one should also know when to exit. Abhimanyu in Mahabharta is a fine example of someone who knew only to enter but not to exit. Thankfully Jyoti Basu was no Abhimanyu. He quit from his post and handed over the reins to Budhhadeb in a perfectly timed move which gave him good enough time to prove himself before the elections. This helped him come back to power.

The equations have however changed since then and the Communists are falling into the deep gorge from where revival would only be termed as a miracle. Could Jyoti Basu’s exit give them that miracle? Could they ride on the wave of emotions after his demise to improve their standing in general public. Even if they do, I don’t see that running for long for Jyoti Basu’s leadership has taught the masses in Bengal to think what is right and reject what is wrong in their own ways. That’s the reason we saw unrest in Singur to initiatives led by the same Government whom they had voted to power 7 times in a row.

Jyoti Basu’s death reminded me of an update I had read recently on Facebook,which said "after your death you leave behind your children and what google says about you." Well in case of Jyoti Basu Google might fall short of words because that’s the level of reach that he had with his masses which can never be summed up by anyone. That’s a True Leader!

We will miss you Jyoti Basu for they don’t make them like you, anymore!

R.I.P. Jyoti Basu. Lal Salaam!