Anil Biswas, an ideologue who led CPM towards change

www.sify.com - Sunday, 26 March , 2006

Soft-spoken and accommodating, CPM state secretary Anil Biswas will be remembered as an ideologue who successfully captained his party’s transition in the state to adapt it to the post-liberalisation scenario and make it acceptable to capitalists and the middle class while retaining its working class roots.

Born on March 2, 1944, at Karimpur in Nadia district, Biswas graduated with Political Science from Krishnagar College. During his college days, he became a member of the Bengal Provincial Students Federation and subsequently made editor of the BPSF organ Chhatra Sangram.

In 1965, he enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Calcutta University and the next year, he joined the CPM’s mouthpiece Ganashakti as a reporter.

Following several years of political activism, Biswas was made a member of the CPM state committee in 1978, a year after the Left Front had come to power in West Bengal.

In 1981, he became a member of the state secretariat and, in 1985, was elevated to the central secretariat as a member.

Notwithstanding his responsibilities in the party, Biswas never lost touch with journalism, contributing reports and articles for Ganashakti. In 1990, he became its editor.

He became a member of the CPM Politburo in 1998 and, the following year, was elected the state secretary.

A disciplinarian, Biswas earned admiration from partymen for his sense of responsibility towards colleagues.