Veteran Marxist politician and economist, Ashok Mitra passed away today at a private hospital in Kolkata. He was 90.
Mitra was one of the most prolific economists from India. He was the chief economic advisor to Government of India at a crucial time, when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. Being one of the key advisors to Indira Gandhi, he took a crucial role in advising Gandhi over giving support to East Pakistan rebels who wanted to form Bangladesh.
During an interview with THE WEEK, a couple of years back, Mitra said, “It all started from Agartala where few East Pakistan teachers, known to me, infiltrated into India and met me at my Delhi office when I was the chief economic advisor to Government of India. That was the first such unofficial meeting, which later culminated into official meeting with Prime Minister’s principle secretary as I introduced them to him.”
He also played a key role as the chief of Agriculture Pricing Commission and conceptualised the minimum support pricing mechanism that played a pivotal role in green revolution in India.
In 1977, when CPI(M) came to power in West Bengal, Mitra was the first finance minister of West Bengal leaving his cushy assignments in Delhi and outside India. As the finance minister, he played an important role in land reforms, along with marxist leaders and ministers like Benoy Chowdhury and Hare Krishna Konar. Mishra was a pioneer in giving touch to three tier panchayat raj in Bengal.
But what made him unpopular among middle class Bengalis was his recommendation to withdraw English from pimary school curriculum in Bengal. A commission led by him recommended the decision, which chief minister Jyoti Basu then approved.
Economist Dipankar Dasgupta once told THE WEEK, “That was one of the worst decisions taken by the then left government which brought Bengal hundred years back. A generation was handicapped by that decision.”
But Mitra said that, “The time demanded such a decision. Because of that we could make Bengal one of the few states in India with highest literacy rate.”
It was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who reversed the decision and brought back English when he became chief minister. Pabitra Sarkar commission, set up by Bhattacharjee, recommended the reversal of such a decision.
In 1987, Mitra fell out with Basu and resigned from his cabinet. However, CPI(M) brought Mitra back to national politics in mid-nineties when he was made Rajya Sabha MP. Time to time his speech in parliament was appreciated by former finance ministers Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram. He was the chairman of standing committee on Industry and Commerce when Singh and Chidambaram were finance ministers of India respectively.
Born to a middle class family in Dhaka, now in Bangladesh, he completed his graduation from Dakha University. After partition, Mitra came to Calcutta and applied to Calcutta University for Masters degree. But he was denied admission in the iconic Calcutta University perhaps because he was unable to pay the fees. Later with the help of a relative Mitra went to UP and completed his Masters in Economics from Beneras Hindu University. He also did a Masters from Delhi School of Economics and won the merit scholarship and then moved to Netherlands to do his PhD in the prestigious university at Rotterdam.
Mitra took up many foreign assignments in UN mission in Bangkok and finally at World Bank before returning to India. He was one of the first professors of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He also taught at Lucknow University, Delhi School of Economics.
Towards the fag end, Mitra chose to spent most of his time writing columns in different dailies and magazines. He thwarted many proposals of teaching or writing and instead spent most of his time writing stories for a local magazine based in Kolkata.