Author:
Publication: The Observer
of Business and Politics
Date: November 6, 2000
The Communist Party of
China on Sunday described outgoing West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu
as 'a friend of China' and hailed his role in promoting Sino-Indian relations.
"Jyoti Basu is an old
friend of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people," a
spokesperson of the international department of the central committee of
the CPC said.
"Basu has done a lot
for.... the promotion of friendship between the two countries and
two parties," the spokesperson further said.
However, the spokesperson
declined to comment on Basu's resignation from the post of chief minister
after 23-years in office, saying "this is an internal affair of the West
Bengal government".
Mr Basu last visited
China in 1991 as a guest of the CPC and made a brief stopover in Beijing
in 1994.
Meanwhile, Reuters adds
from Calcutta that the chief minister of West Bengal and leader of the,
world's oldest democratically elected communist government said on his
last day in office on Sunday that he would fight against the federal Hindu
nationalist-led coalition.
Marxist Jyoti Basu, 87,
who has led the West Bengal for a record 23 years, said that he had already
begun talks to try to dislodge Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 23-party
coalition, which last month marked a year in power. "I feel sad that
after 53 years of independence, we have a government led by a communal
party. This should not be in the history of India, which is constitutionally
secular. That is why I do not like this government at all," Mr Basu
said. Mr Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliated
groups are often accused of being biased against minorities, particularly
Muslims and Christians despite Mr Vajpayee's assertions that his government
defended the interests of people of all faiths. However, the BJP
and its allies deny these allegations but say that they are opposed to
the appeasement of any community.
Mr Basu said that several
political leaders, including former Prime Ministers, had approached him
to resurrect a so-called 'third front', a group of centrist parties that
formed a federal coalition in 1996 as an alternative to the BJP and the
main opposition Congress, whose fortunes have foundered in recent years.
