Sangram Datta:
Bhupesh Gupta was the legendary peasant leader of undivided Bengal, a veteran front runner of the communist movement in the sub-continent and a dedicated friend to the cause of our Liberation War in 1971.
Bhupesh Gupta was born on October-20, 1914 at Itna Police Station in Kishoreganj district of East Bengal (now called Bangladesh).
His father, Shri Mahesh Chandra Gupta was a rich landlord. Born in a wealthy family, He could have led a life of ease and affluence but he hardly cared for it. But He started live simplicity ,it is not surprising that He chose to remain a life-long bachelor with single-minded devotion to the service of the country .
He all along a brilliant student was educated at Scottish Church College, Calcutta and University College, London.
He joined India's struggle for freedom at an early age and was detained several times but his quest for knowledge remained undiminished.
He passed his I.A. and B.A. examinations of the Calcutta University from Berhampur detention camp with distinction.
Later on, his father wrote to the Government that he wanted to send his son to England for higher studies.
The Government agreeing, Bhupesh went to England to study Law and was called to the bar from the Middle Temple, London.
He, a born fighter as he was, fought against the British imperialism right from his student days. After completing his studies in England. 'Bhupeshda', as he was endearingly called by his friends and fellow workers. returned to India in 1941 and devoted himself full-time to the work of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
In 1947, he was elected to the West Bengal Provincial Committee of the CPI and was appointed as Chairman of the editorial board of the party's Bengali daily Swadhinata in 1951. Since the CPI was declared illegal by the Govemment,· he was arrested in 1951 and detained till April, 1952.he worked under P.C. Joshi for some time
During his days in England, he was a close friend of Mrs Indira Gandhi as they participated in the activities of the India League together with many others who later became stalwarts of free India. But, unlike many of them, Gupta never allowed his personal friendship with the Nehru family to come in the way of his political conviction.
Inside Parliament, and outside it, he was a fierce critic of the policies of the Congress Government even though his party, CPI, was wedded into an alliance with the Congress for many years. His death, at 66, will signal a major setback for the continuous attempts of the 'left' forces in the country to come together.
He was a member of the Rajya Sabha for five terms from West Bengal, from 3 April 1952 till his death. He was reelected in 1958, 1964,1970 and 1976. He was a skilled parliamentarian.
In his personal life there was never even the breath of a compromise. An ascetic from the day he joined the revolutionaries in his student days. He never had any attachment to any personal property. His clothes, his belongings, his home, he never let any sense of attachment trouble him. . He was attached to one form of property: books. He would lend or borrow this precious commodity to and from friends and comrades he could. He was a very human personality. There was nothing of the protocol stiffness of a leader about him. He could crack a joke at his own expense: Friends used to tease him that he could not get married because he could not muster courage to propose to a girl, for fear of being jilted.
He enjoyed this as much as all of his friends . He was a nationalist in the best sense. He would never discard his dhoti and Punjabi kurta even for a Rashtrapati Bhavan banquet.
His work table was full of paper, all sorted out and classified. He was his own private secretary.
He died At Moscow following illness on August 5, 1981.
Though unpleasant but true that his ancestral home and huge property has been occupied by a local influential political leader.
His historical childhood residence should be reconstructed as an important memorial to him. He sacrificed his whole life fighting for the peasants.
The government should take proper care of this dilapidated building, Locals demand
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