KOLKATA: Jyoti Basu has declined institutional honour for all these years. So, when Calcutta University proposed to offer him the DLitt degree, Basu didn't agree.
Basu has always identified himself with the masses and shunned intellectual jargon. So, when CU conferred on him the Doctor of Law on Thursday, Basu's speech was no different from what he usually says at public gatherings."I have done what my party wanted me to do," the CPM patriarch said.
And unlike others, the former chief minister spoke about the achievements of the Left Front government and the hurdles ahead, instead of highlighting his personal contribution to politics. He stressed on collective leadership and industrialisation, as he does while emerging out of a party meeting at Alimuddin Street. This is perhaps what Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi found unique in "Jyoti babu" .
Calling him a true leader, the Governor cited instances where Basu had expressed his opinions without undermining his unflinching loyalty to the party. Despite his strong political leanings, the Governor felt that Basu could always rise above the party on occasions. "International communist leader R P Dutt was Basu's mentor.
But when Dutt described Gandhiji as a bourgeois leader, Basu didn't hesitate to stand up and point out that Dutt was wrong." Basu went up the dais like he would at any other gathering, received the honour, gave a formal speech and left CU like the day he came out of the Writers', never to return.