Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee remembered by his presi friends as a ‘Shy Boy’ who merged student politics and NCC

KOLKATA: Contemporaries and batchmates of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee remembered the former chief minister as a “shy boy” during his college days at Presidency College. Bhattacharjee studied Bengali honours from 1961 to 1964 at Presidency.

He joined Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya in class V in 1954 and passed HS in 1961. The former CM was actively involved in NCC from his school days.

Octogenarian Lily Banerjee, who was a classmate of Bhattacharjee, said he was a shy student and always wore ‘dhuti’ and ‘punjabi’. “I remember that one of our professors, Bhudeb Chowdhury, praised his writing by saying that it has ‘spark’. But the professor also said Buddha is ‘fakibaaj’,” Banerjee said.

Bhattacharjee was actively involved in the Bangla study circle of the Presidency and was also its joint secretary.

Nirmal Brahmachari, who was a leader of the Students’ Federation during the 60s, said, “Naxalite leader Mitra was instrumental in Buddhadeb’s first initiation into active politics around 1962-1963. During our meetings, Saibal da and others would call him from his Hatibagan house.”

Publisher-editor and critic of arts Samik Bandyopadhyay said, “At Presidency College, the Students’ Federation won union elections in 1961 and the convention was that the vice president was chosen from the elected representatives of the post-graduate college students. I was elected vice president. Buddhadeb had just joined college. Asim Dasgupta and Atish Dasgupta were in the same batch. Buddhadeb did not come into prominence at that time. Later, he told me that I was his first political leader because he was a campaigner during the elections.”

Another batchmate Madhusree Ghosh, who studied Sanskrit at Presidency, remembered him as a lean youth, who was well-behaved, soft-spoken and extremely culturally conscious.

An NCC spokesperson said Bhattacharjee joined the NCC during his school days under the influence of a couple of his teachers. “Even when he joined Adarsh Shankha Vidya Mandir school at Dum Dum as a teacher, he encouraged schoolkids to join the NCC,” he added.

Presidency interim VC Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty, registrar Debajyoti Konar and two other officials visited his Palm Avenue home on Thursday.

His school arranged for a condolence meet. Assistant headmaster Harinath Nanda said, “In 1997, he came to unveil a statue of Jyotirbikash Mitra, who was the first national teacher. He was then the information and cultural minister. On Jan 5, 2001, he inaugurated a memorial plaque of Mitra on foundation day. He was the CM then.” The school has announced a holiday on Friday.


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