Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee embodied gaping vision-ground reality holes of Bengal's industry prospects
Left Front rule in Bengal had just got over at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. It was sometime in June 2007. CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu, well into his 90s, had long delivered his speech but showed no signs of departing the dais although supporters had already started leaving the tightly packed venue. That wasn't usual, given the grand old man's failing health and his limited public appearances.
Shortly afterwards, the stalwart was seen engrossed in an animated discussion with then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, his frown apparent even from a distance. Biman Bose, then Left Front chairman and secretary of the party's state unit, soon joined what looked more like a debate than a conversation.
Again extremely unusual, given a deadpan Basu's demeanour in public rarely bordered on the jittery and the party hardly ever exhibited its differences outside the closed doors of its Alimuddin Street headquarters.
The division on two sides of the battle line was, by then, clear. It was Basu versus Bhattacharjee-Bose and they, clearly, agreed to disagree.
Soon enough Roopchand Pal, the now-deceased Hooghly district leader and former MP, was summoned on stage.
Minutes later, when Basu left the stage, looking more unconvinced and distraught than before, a motley band of journalists and lower-ranked Left comrades surrounded Pal backstage for inputs.
«The old man isn't thinking straight. This is about those villagers in Singur's Bajemelia who resisted the entry of the Tata officials during their site visit in
