Click to play videoKolkata: Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee says there are several lessons to learn from the Communist Party of India-Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu's life.
Basu, one India's tallest leaders, passed away on Sunday in Kolkata aged 95.
A charismatic leader, he served as West Bengal Chief Minister from June 1977 to November 2000, heading five successive Left Front governments.
Chatterjee spoke to CNN-IBN National Editor Diptosh Majumdar about the legacy of Basu. He said that Basu did not agree with the Left pulling out from United Progressive Alliance government over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
Somnath Chatterjee: He started his life in India after his return. In a railway colony for the railway workers and since then, with their support he went to the Bengal Assembly and created record there by becoming the fighter against government.
Diptosh Majumdar: Sir one question. A communist in Parliamentary democracy don't go hand in hand?
Somnath Chatterjee: You see, in theoretical sense yes, but when the party decided to take part in electoral politics, then when we decided to use this forum for the good of the working and the vulnerable people
Diptosh Majumdar: Dogmatism and Jyoti Basu don't go together at all. Would he have agreed with the present leadership in Delhi?
Somnath Chatterjee: He never did openly, you know that he had disagreed with regard to the 1996 episode when there was an offer, not for himself but because he felt that the party and the people of the country lost the great opportunity which history will not easily repeat and that is what concerned him and he felt that the last withdrawal of the support was not well timed because he felt that was the time when that should have been done and that is what we see today.
Diptosh Majumdar: The Jyoti Basu factor, him as a role model, do you think it should not force the party to rethink some of its policies which it is blindly following now?
Somnath Chatterjee: I have no authority to speak on behalf of CPI-M,nor am I their advisor but I only hope that the lessons of Jyoti babu's life will be taken by all, particularly his comrades.
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