Former Finance Minister of West Bengal, Ashok Mitra, died in Kolkata on Tuesday, May 1. He was 90.
Mitra was born in Dhaka in 1928. He was the first finance minister of the Left Front government in Bengal. Mitra was the West Bengal finance minister between 1977 and 1987, and resigned from the cabinet after serious differences with then chief minister Jyoti Basu.
Mitra did his Masters from Benaras Hindu University in Economics and earned his PhD from the University of Rotterdam. He taught at the University of Lucknow, worked at the United Nations and the World Bank. He was the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and then Finance Minister of West Bengal from 1977-87.
After resigning from the cabinet in Bengal, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and was also chairman of the Parliament Standing Committee of Industry and Commerce.
In the later years, Mitra was a severe critic of the Left Front government.
After the Left Front had lost to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in 2011, Mitra had said, “prolonged rule of 34 years saw the organisation getting infected by termites. Corruption, haughtiness, arrogance, high-handedness… all these invaded the organisation.”
He was openly critical of the Left Front government stand on the Singur and Nanigram issues and said “people began to realise that the government was no longer for them,” Mitra said during the Anil Biswas Commemorative Lecture, organised by the SFI in Kolkata, in 2011.
The Bengal Story spoke to Asim Dasgupta, former West Bengal finance minister in the Left Front government, who took over from Mitra after he resigned in 1987. Mitra had also taught Dasgupta in university.
How did you first meet Ashok Mitra?
I met him in the mid-1960s while I was studying Economics at the University of Calcutta. Ashok Sir used to take a class every week. I was very fond of his teaching style and continued to be in touch with him since then.
Did the teacher-student dynamics change subsequently?
When I returned to India after completing my doctorate, the Left Front had come to power and Ashok Sir was the Finance Minister. He asked me to prepare a “Financial Survey” to be presented along with the state budget, and I was ecstatic! I immediately agreed to do this very important work. He was the first to point out how the Central government was depriving the state government in allocating money.
While you were the Finance Minister, did you consult him before presenting the budget?
I used to consult him on many issues. After the budget, I used to visit him to present the “Budget Book” every year during my tenure as finance minister.
Ashok Mitra opposed the Left Front government’s actions during the Singur movement. What are your thoughts on that?
I am not going to say anything on that – political leaders can comment. All I can say is that later we decided to acquire land after discussing the matter with farmers and to consider their views.
