Jyoti Basu, the last Bhadralok Communist

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Some would say God is not qualified to judge Jyoti Basu because he had never--not even in his weakest moments--uttered a prayer for an intervention by the Almighty. Even Karl Marx, whom Basu swore by in his early life, would have found it difficult to evaluate a life so complicated, and possibly enriched, by genuine contradictions. His admirers will insist that Basu's was probably the most liberal face among Communists on Earth and would compete with that of Gorbachev's. His critics will lash out at him and use intemperate language to describe the country's longest-reigning chief minister as a failure. They'd say in the end he did nothing for Bengal. Yet, if you add up the bits and pieces of his remarkable life you'll also realize that he did a lot for India: for the country's secularism, Left consciousness, political equilibrium, ethnic relations and, in general, for democratic well-being. ....