Tag: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

  • Buddhadeb’s wife informed of Padma award before announcement; no one from family objected: Sources

    The former chief minister's wife picked up the phone as he has been unwell and she was conveyed the central govt's decision to name him as one of the Padma awardees this year, sources said.

  • Former Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refuses Padma Bhushan

    By ANI

    KOLKATA:  Veteran CPI(M) leader and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday refused to accept the Padma Bhushan award, kicking off a political controversy.

    “I know nothing about this award. No one has told me anything about it. If they have decided to offer Padma Bhushan to me, I refuse to accept it,” Bhattacharjee said in a statement.

    However, official sources said the Union Home Ministry informed the wife of the ailing veteran leader about the government’s decision to give him the Padma Bhushan before announcing his name early Tuesday morning, and no one from his family objected to it.

    Bhattacharjee’s wife told the top official that she would inform him about it.

    After which no one from his family got back to the home ministry to inform that he was unwilling to accept the Padma award.

    Usually the norm is that the central government seeks the concurrence of an awardee before announcing his name for the Padma award.

    Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Hindutva poster boy late Kalyan Singh and India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat who died in a helicopter crash recently, were awarded Padma Vibhushan on Tuesday, while veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were named for the Padma Bhushan.

    While explaining the reasons behind his refusal, the CPI(M) said the party’s policy was not to accept such state awards.

    “Comrade Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who was nominated for the Padma Bhushan award has declined to accept it. The CPI(M) policy has been consistent in declining such awards from the State. Our work is for the people not for awards. Comrade EMS (Namboodiripad) who was earlier offered an award had declined it.” the CPI(M) tweeted.

    The 77-year-old communist patriarch, one of the tallest leaders of the Bengal CPI(M), was chief minister of West Bengal from 2000-2011.

    He is currently unwell suffering from age-related problems.

    According to CPI(M) sources, the decision to forgo the award was one taken by both Bhattacharjee and the party.

    “Communists don’t hanker after state awards. Earlier, Jyoti Basu had refused Bharat Ratna when his name was doing rounds in 2008. So this was expected,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said.

    Echoing him, CPI (M) leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said accepting an award from a government “dividing people into communal lines” was out of the question.

    While reacting to Bhattacharjee’s refusal, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said it was his personal decision.

    “The country had decided to honour him. Now it is up to him to decide on whether he wants to accept it or not,” he said.

    However, the Trinamool Congress claimed the nexus between the CPI (M) and BJP stands exposed as Bhattacharjee made no contributions that deserved an award.

    “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be remembered for Nandigram and Singur forcible land acquisition.

    This decision by the BJP government to confer Padma Bhushan only exposes the CPI(M) and BJP’s tacit understanding in West Bengal,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

  • Former Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, wife discharged from Kolkata nursing home

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Wednesday discharged from a nursing home in Kolkata where he was undergoing treatment for post-COVID ailments, doctors said.

    His wife Mira Bhattacharjee, also admitted at the same nursing home, was discharged as well, they said.

    The former chief minister’s health condition is stable, a senior doctor of the nursing home said.

    “His antibody report is okay and other parameters are also fine.

    But, he is needed to follow the prescribed medicines at home,” the doctor said.

    Bhattacharjee, 77, is a patient of COPD and need to be very careful, he said.

    “Our doctors will be in touch with the family and keep a tab on the health conditions of both Bhattacharjee and his wife,” he said.

    The former minister and his wife, diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, were discharged from a hospital on June 2 after recovering from the infection.

    They were then admitted to the nursing home for treatment of post-COVID complications.

  • COVID-19: Former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s health condition is stable

    By ANI
    KOLKATA: The health condition of former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was admitted to the hospital after testing COVID-19 positive, is now stable.

    As per the official release by Woodlands Hospital Critical Care Department on Saturday morning, “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (age 77 years) and Former Chief Minister of West Bengal, admitted on May 25, 2021, at 12.32 pm in Woodlands Hospital Critical Care Department. He is now stable.”

    “He presented with drowsiness and shortness of breath. He was detected SarsCov2 positive on May 18, 2021. He is on intermittent BIPAP with 3 litres of oxygen, SpO2 maintaining at 92 percent. He is presently conscious, alert and talking sensibly. He has a mild dry cough,” informed the hospital.

    The hospital authorities further informed, “Blood pressure is stable, he is having a heart rate of 60/min. Urine output is satisfactory. He is taking food orally. His capillary blood glucose levels are normal now. He is on Injection Clexane, Injection Solumedrol, Injection Remdesivir (day 5) and other supportive measures.”

    Treating doctors are on constant vigil on his health situation and will take appropriate measures from time to time, assured the hospital.

    Representing the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. At present, Mamata Banerjee is the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2012 onwards.

  • ‘COVID-infected Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stable now’: Hospital on former Bengal CM’s health

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The health condition of former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is stable though he continued to have shortness of breath and be in a state of drowsiness, an official said on Thursday.

    Bhattacharjee (77), who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, is presently conscious, alert and talking, he said.

    “Mr Bhattacharjee is stable but continues to be on BiPAP, requiring four litres of oxygen. His oxygen saturation is at 92 per cent and his blood pressure is also stable and his heart rate is 54 per minute,” the hospital official said in a statement.

    “Doctors are continuing to inject Remdesvir and other supportive measures. He is taking food orally. His urine output is also satisfactory,” he added.

    The veteran CPI(M) leader’s wife Mira Bhattacherjee, discharged from the hospital on Monday after recovery from COVID-19, was fine and stable, a senior official said.

  • COVID-infected Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s condition stable, responding to commands: Hospital

    The 77-year-old veteran politician, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 18, has a heart rate of 56 beats per minutes and his urine output is satisfactory, sources said.

  • Former West Bengal​ CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s health condition deteriorates

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal’s former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had tested positive for COVID-19 last week, was admitted at a private hospital in south Kolkata on Tuesday after his health condition deteriorated, officials said.

    Later in the afternoon, his wife Mira Bhattacharjee, who was discharged from the facility on Monday after she had recovered from coronavirus, was rushed to the medical establishment following a panic attack, they said.

    “Mr.Bhattacharjee’s oxygen saturation level slipped below 90 per cent this morning, following which doctors advised him to get admitted to a medical facility. He has been kept under observation in the CCU where he has been put on BiPAP. His oxygen saturation is maintaining at 92 per cent,” an official said.

    The 77-year-old politician is a patient of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and needs to go to a hospital for clinical examinations.

    “Bhattacharjee is conscious, alert, and communicating verbally. His blood pressure and pulse are stable, and urine output is satisfactory. The former chief minister has drowsiness and shortness of breath,” the official said.

    Doctors conducted CT scans and necessary blood tests.

    “Doctors are on constant vigil and will take appropriate measures from time to time,” the official of the hospital said.

    The former chief minister, one of the most senior leaders of the CPI(M) was not willing to go to a hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 on May 18.

    His wife had also contracted the disease last week and was admitted at the medical establishment.

    She was discharged from the facility on Monday after she tested negative for the infection.

    “Mrs.Bhattacharjee was alone at home after the former chief minister was admitted to the hospital in the afternoon. She was having a panic attack following which her health condition deteriorated a bit and we took her to the hospital. We cannot take any chances,” the official said.

  • Coronavirus-positive former Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted to hospital

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, was admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday after his health condition deteriorated, officials said.

    His oxygen level slipped below 90 per cent this morning, following which doctors advised him to get admitted to a medical facility, they said.

    “Bhattacharjee has been in home isolation and put on BiPAP support. Even though his oxygen level dropped below 90. We did not take any chance,” a doctor at the private hospital, where he was admitted, told PTI.

    The 77-year-old politician also suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and needs to go to hospital for other clinical examinations, the health department officials said.

    Bhattacharjee was not willing to go to hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 on May 18.

    His wife Mira Bhattacharjee had also contracted the disease last week and was admitted to a medical facility in the city.

    She was discharged from the hospital on Monday after she tested negative for the infection.

  • Buddha and what’s left of the citadel

    Express News Service
    WEST BENGAL: Between the binary of a ladaku neta (the war-like Mamata Banerjee) and the PM’s fort-destroyer act, complete with taunts and slogans, there’s another figure who’s also in the contest quite strangely, in his absence. He is Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

    The 77-year-old former West Bengal CM’s failing health especially respiratory trouble in this Covid season has kept him away from the public stage. All that has come from him by way of intervention in this election season is a statement. He shot a single arrow, talking of “the unravelling of the Singur-Nandigram conspiracy”, and the irony of “the conspirators now fighting each other” in the silence of the graveyard.

    Where did he find ‘silence’ in this deafeningly high-decibel contest? What he refers to is the silence the lack of any discussion, amidst this very personalised campaign on what he believes to be the real issue. That is, the derailed industrialisation of Bengal.

    His own attempt to reverse that, beginning from Singur-Nandigram, was a dark and fated one: it had cost Buddhadeb his government and led to his ignominious exit from electoral politics. He had even lost the Jadavpur seat to his former chief secretary, Manish Gupta, by a margin of over 16,000 votes. That was in 2011, when Mamata swept into power on what was called a mandate for paribartan (change).

    Ten years down the line, the BJP is riding on the idea of asol paribartan (real change). If that sounds like an echo, there are reasons why it resonates. They are the same reasons from a decade ago. Jobless youth are the most common sight everywhere in the state even though Bengal’s unemployment, if CMIE data is to be believed, is less than that of Haryana, Rajasthan or Bihar. Indeed, at 17.4% as per the CMIE 2020 annual survey, Bengal’s unemployment is even less than the national average. But it’s nearly double compared to neighbouring Odisha and Assam’s 9.6%. Take the group of youth, all graduates, whiling away their time around a tea stall outside one of Bishnupur’s famous terracotta temples. None of them have jobs or any hope of getting one anytime soon. They debate over what ‘Buddhababu’ wanted to do for West Bengal and could not. “Nobody thought about it quite the same way. If he had succeeded, none of us would have been unemployed, more industry would have come…rajya kothai pouchhe jeto (what heights the state would have scaled!).” From the Nano factory shifting to Sanand, Gujarat, becoming part of the triumphal lore around Narendra Modi, to him now coming to wrest Bengal as PM, irony has come a full circle.

    All in their mid and late 20s, Simanta Das, Arjun Ghosh, Sudip and Shankar Pal, must’ve been in high school or college when the Left Front lost power. But Buddhadeb and the Singur- Nandigram fiasco is still a discussion point in their casual afternoon conversations.

    Does that mean the Sanjukta Morcha candidate has a winning chance? They’re not quite sure, except maybe in certain pockets. Buddhadeb, however, is a figure of underlying nostalgia, even though neither the Left nor the Morcha (Congress- Left-ISF alliance) is mining it.

    In Bankura district, in South 24 Parganas, Burdwan or Howrah, as well as up north, the Morcha claims it will post surprising results, particularly in the rural seats. But nowhere have they been tapping that old sentiment. The CPI-M, the main Left constituent, has gone ahead with a ‘new experiment’. Just like in Kerala, it has fielded several young articulate faces here who can talk about the ‘real issues’ with passion — unemployment, livelihood, privatisation, rising prices, tumbling economy, farm laws, the perils of caste and communal politics in a state like Bengal which has known the nightmare of riots, particularly on the cusp of Independence.

    They are quite a visible, audible presence. Start from Nandigram (Meenakshi Mukherjee), and go on to Singur (Srijan Bhattacharya), Bally (Dipsita Dhar), Jamuria (Aishe Ghosh), Kamarhati (Sayandip Mitra), Diamond Harbour (Pratikur Rehman), Rajarhat Newtown (Saptarshi Deb), Kasba (Shatarup Ghosh), Burdwan Dakshin (Pritha Tah) some of the seats already polled. There are those who feel, citing their youth, that they would need grooming to learn the ropes of electoral politics. “It’s a gamble that may pay off five-seven years down the line, when the levers of the state CPI(M) will have to pass on from the ageing leadership,” says a Left sympathiser, referring to the old warhorses Biman Bose and Surja Kanta Mishra.

    The support for the Left in colleges and university campuses — from JNU to Jadavpur here — and among a section of the youth in general has come as a breather for that ageing Left leadership, often called the ‘geriatric club’ in jest.

    “This one move is expected to sustain the party in the coming years, it’s a much-needed infusion of young blood,” says Nilanjan Dutta, who’s followed Left politics in the state with academic interest. Dipsita Dhar, CPI(M) candidate in Bally, Howrah (a district where BJP hopes to do well), affirms that: “Working for strengthening the organisation, standing by the people, the farmers in their struggle, is of prime importance.” When camp-switching is the sort of thing that makes headlines, that’s a kind of throwback line.

    In Santiniketan, Birbhum, Subas Sen is no Left activist. He’s attached to the boutique business, and openly nurses a grouse against the TMC’s “autocratic local neta”, but yet is slightly uncomfortable with the BJP’s “Hindutva-cum pro-big business agenda”. Sen laments about Buddhadeb’s “failed industrialisation”. It has left many like him bitter. “Politics is no place for bhadralok. Buddhababu is an example of that. If he had acted like Amit Shah, the state’s industrialisation wouldn’t have been stalled. There would have been jobs for the youth, ancillary units, what not,” he says.

    Miles away, in Deganga Assembly constituency of North 24 Parganas, the Forward Bloc’s party festoons surprise young driver Choton. So much so that he parks his sedan to find out which “new party” the symbol belongs to! The familiarity with the Forward Bloc flag has obviously waned in the last 10 years. “Oh! Left Front’s Forward Bloc,” he exclaims, a tad embarrassed. He hastens to cover up, and again that refrain: “Buddhababu is a good man, he tried to do something.”

    In the minority-dominated areas of Deganga, they assert their “vote is for Didi” and “jamait (gathering) for Bhai Jaan”, that is, Abbas Siddiqui of the Indian Secular Front, part of the Left-Congress alliance. TMC candidate Rahima Mandol, who defeated the FB candidate in the previous election, is pitted against the BJP’s Dipika Chatterjee this time. The newly floated ISF of ‘Abbas Baba’ has fielded Karim Ali. Deganga is part of the Barasat Lok Sabha constituency, represented by the TMC’s rather popular MP, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

    The Left’s tie-up with the Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui is turning out to be a double- edged sword. The idea was to win back the atraf or azlaf votes — the Muslim peasantry — which went over to TMC in 2011, partly out of fear of Buddhadeb’s land acquisition policy. Traditional Left voters are reacting to the alliance with a Muslim cleric, they see it as a regressive, anti-secular step. The younger campus returnees, however, see it as extending support to a budding Muslim-Dalit politics. One of the Left leaders claimed, “With us, he’ll remain true to the ‘secular’ tag of his party.”

    In Purbo Burdwan, once a Left bastion, the fight on the surface is only a TMC-BJP one. Here, a group of young Left supporters are holding an artisanal fair to create an ambience, and convince rural voters of the need to regain lost ground. Here again,‘Buddhada’ is remembered.

    Even more surprisingly, top business leaders in Kolkata, in their private conversations, hark back to the ‘lost opportunity’ created by Buddhababu’s vision. “It’s unfortunate that neither his party nor his central leadership supported him. He was sabotaged from within and pilloried from outside,” one of them says.

    None of them are ready to go on record with their political views, given the divisive tenor of the campaign. Sujan Chakraborty, the CPI(M)’s current legislative party leader who’s contesting from Jadavpur (Buddhadeb’s old seat), is candid enough to admit the former CM cannot be blamed for what went wrong. It was a “collective decision”. Chakraborty and his young comrades are creating quite a ripple, thanks to civil rights groups, musicians, and theatre and film artistes who’ve come out in direct or tangential support of the Left with jingles and viral videos. So is former MP, politburo member Mohammed Salim, contesting from Chanditala, Hoogly, also the face of the CPI(M) campaign this election. Or Ashok Bhattacharya in his home turf, Siliguri. It may not result in a big electoral victory in terms of seats, but the Left hopes to get back some of the 27 per cent vote that it, in a way, gifted to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The correlation was as direct as it could get: the BJP got 28 per cent votes, the Left lost 27 per cent.

    Little wonder, then, that the BJP’s latest song video circulating on social media platforms starring Babul Supriyo, Asansol MP and union minister who’s now contesting from Tollygunge constituency in Kolkata targets the Left, and not the TMC.