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{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}} {{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder {{Infobox officeholder
| name = Bhupesh Gupta | name = Bhupesh Gupta
|image = Statue of Late Shri Bhupesh Gupta, in New Delhi (cropped).jpg
| honorific-prefix = ]
| honorific-suffix = ''']''' | honorific-prefix = ]
| constituency2= ] | honorific-suffix = ''']'''
| office2 = ], ] | constituency2 = ]
| office2 = ], ]
| term_start2 = 1952 | term_start2 = 1952
| term_end2 = 1981 | term_end2 = 1981
|birth_date = {{Birth date |1914|10|20|df=y}} | birth_date = {{Birth date |1914|10|20|df=y}}
|birth_place = Itna, ], ], ]<br><small>(now in ])</small> | birth_place = Itna, ], ], ]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1981|8|6|1914|10|20|df=y}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1981|8|6|1914|10|20|df=y}}
|death_place =Moscow, ], ]<br><small>(now Moscow, Russia)</small> | death_place = ], ],<br/>]
|occupation = ]arian | occupation = ]arian
|years_active = | years_active =
| father = Mahesh Chandra Gupta
|relatives =
| mother =
|spouse =
| relatives =
|children =
| spouse =
| children =
}} }}
{{Indcom}} {{Indcom}}
'''Bhupesh Gupta''' ({{lang-bn|ভূপেশ গুপ্ত}}) (20 October 1914 – 6 August 1981) was an Indian politician and a leader of the ]. He was a member of the ] for five terms from West Bengal, from 3 April 1952 till his death. He was reelected in 1958, 1964,1970 and 1976.


'''Bhupesh Gupta''' ({{langx|bn|ভূপেশ গুপ্ত}}) (20 October 1914 – 6 August 1981) was an Indian politician and a leader of the ]. <ref name=“Parliament”>{{cite book |title=Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta |date=October 1990 |publisher=Lok Sabha Secretariat |location=New Delhi |page=1 |url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/58677/1/Eminent_Parliamentarians_Series_Bhupesh_Gupta.pdf |access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref>

He was one of the senior communist leaders and parliamentarians in ]. He was elected on 13 May 1952 as a Member of the Rajya Sabha and remained on the post till his death in 1981. He was the longest-serving member of the Rajya Sabha at the time of his death. <ref>{{cite book |title=Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta |date=October 1990 |publisher=Lok Sabha Secretariat |location=New Delhi |page=8 |url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/58677/1/Eminent_Parliamentarians_Series_Bhupesh_Gupta.pdf |access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref>
==Early life== ==Early life==
He was born on 20 October 1914, at Itna, in the erstwhile ] of ] in ]. He studied at the ] of the ]. <ref name=“Parliament” /> Bhupesh Gupta joined the freedom movement of India in his early years when he was active in the Bengal revolutionary group ].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article6763.html|title=Bhupesh: Some Reminiscences | publisher= Mainstream magazine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://mainstreamweekly.net/article5258.html|title=Remembering Bhupesh Gupta on his Birth Centenary | publisher= Mainstream magazine}}</ref>
He was born on
October 20, 1914 at Itna in ] of ] in ] (now ]). His father, Shri
Mahesh Chandra Gupta was a rich landlord. Though
born in a wealthy family, Bhupesh hardly cared and
plunged into national movement at the age of 16, and
never looked back. He chose to remain a life-long
bachelor with single-minded devotion to the serviceof the country and the communist cause. Bhupesh Gupta: Outstanding Parliamentarian,
Builder of Communist Movement Bhupesh all along was a
brilliant student, educated at renowned ] of the ] and ] He passed his F.A. and B.A.
examinations of Calcutta
University from Behrampur detention
camp with distinction. In
Berhampur, he was in the
same cell for four years
as ], a
founder of CPI in Bihar.


He did his ] from ] and was called to the ] from the ], London. <ref name=“Parliament” /> In England he was a close friend of Mrs. ] as both they participated in the activities of the ], though their political conviction was different in later course. <ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/2015/jun/21/indira-wanted-soviets-on-board-for-the-emergency-772451.html|title=Indira Wanted Soviets On Board For The Emergency | publisher=]}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Datta|2008|p=592}}</ref>{{Request quotation|date=December 2021}}
==In revolutionary and communist movement==


==Later life==
Soon Bhupesh was
He was a member of the ] for five terms from West Bengal, from 13 May 1952 till his death. He was reelected in 1958, 1964, 1970 and 1976. He was a skilled parliamentarian. He died in Moscow on 6 August 1981.<ref>{{cite book |title=Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta |date=October 1990 |publisher=Lok Sabha Secretariat |location=New Delhi |page=11 |url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/58677/1/Eminent_Parliamentarians_Series_Bhupesh_Gupta.pdf |access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref>
drawn into the magic
circle of national revolutionaries, joining the
revolutionary group
] headed by
].
He also took an active
part in Civil Disobedience Movement, and was arrested several times: in
1930, 1931 and 1933, and was kept in detention till 1937. It was then that he came in touch with the
Marxist ideology.

His father wanted Bhupesh to keep off politics, and as such wrote to the government requesting Bhupesh be sent to England for higher studies. Government agreeing, Bhupesh went
to England to study law and was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple, London.

But in England he came in contact with the ] and student movement, and turned a communist. He met a large
number of communists including Indian ones. Bhupesh returned to India in 1941 and devoted himself full-time to ]. Initially he worked
in the underground headquarters of CPI. He was
also one of the founders
of the ] (FSU) in
1941.

As a member of Jana
Raksha Samiti, Bhupesh
did tremendous amount
of work during the Great
Bengal Famine of 1943.
He also was a founder of
the People’s Relief Committee. He defended the
accused in [[Tebhaga movement|Tebhaga
peasants’ movement]] of
1946. He also defended
the workers of Jamshedpur including of TELCO in 1946 in compulsory adjudication under the Defence of India Rules.

==During BTR period and in Parliament==

Bhupesh went underground during the left sectarian adventurist
period of BTR Line of
1948-50, which had done
much damage to the
party.

In 1947, he was elected
to the West Bengal Pro-
vincial Committee of the
CPI and was appointed
as chairman of the edito-
rial board of party’s
Bengali daily
‘Swadhinata’ in 1951.
Since the CPI was de-
clared illegal by the
government, he was ar-
rested in 1951 and
detained till April, 1952.

After the party de-
cided to fight elections,
he was elected to the
Rajya Sabha in 1952.
Since then he was its
member till his death, as
the longest serving
member. He was espe-
cially felicitated on June
22, 1977 on the occasion
of the 100th session of the
RS and its 25 years.

He was closely associated with peace
movement and ] (AIPSO).
Newspapers in Kingston, Jamaica,
hailed him as the hero of
the Commonwealth Parliamentary conference after his speech on racism and apartheid in 1979.

==Positions in the party==

Bhupesh Gupta was
elected to CC of the CPI
at its third Congress,
Madurai, 1953-54. He
was elected to the Polit
Buro for the first time at
Palghat Congress in
1956. After organizational restructuring at
Amritsar in 1958, he was
elected to central secre-
tariat, a position he held
till his death in 1981.

He was the editor of ] from 1954 to
1957 and from 1966 till his
death in 1981. Especially
on Sundays he would be
hammering away his
editorials and articles on
a vintage Remington
typewriter of 1937
brought from England.
His last article was on the
Resolution of the CC CP
China meeting of July
1981, written from Mos-
cow. In this resolution
the CC CPC had criticized the socalled ‘cultural revolution’ in
China, holding Mao re-
sponsible for the
destruction.

During the days of
Maoist ideological-political assaults from the
CPC and the consequent
split in CPI in 1964,
Bhupesh Gupta tried his
best to seek ways to
avoid split, and after
split, to bring about a
reconciliation. But his
efforts did not succeed.
==World Communist movement==

Bhupesh Gupta was a
staunch internationalist
and a tireless crusader
against apartheid and
racism. He attended the
Bucharest preparatory
meeting of the [[1957 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties|International Communist
Conference (1957)]]. He
was a member of the CPI
delegations at the 1957,
1960 and 1969 confer-
ences of World
Communist Movement.
He was also a member of
CPI delegation led by
general secretary ] to Peking in 1959 and met Mao Tse-tung
(Mao Zedong). Bhupesh
Gupta was active in
]. In
fact, the last conference
he attended was International Conference of
Solidarity with Syria and
] (PLO) in
Damascus (1981).

==Condemning Chinese aggression==

Bhupeshda demon-
strated that communism
is the best form of patriotism. His patriotic fervour was very much
evident when taking part in Rajya Sabha discussion on Defence of India Bill during Chinese aggression in 1962, he emphatically said: “I
declare on the floor of the
House that I do not know
of any Communist or a
trade-unionist of that sort
who is opposed to the
defence of the country or
who is in sympathy with
the aggression that has
taken place. If any-
body… went against
resolution and the patri-
otic position of the
country…, he would be putting himself outside
the pale of the Communist party and the movement. “

He was the symbol of the Marxist integration of patriotism and proletarian internationalism.

==Champion of rural labour and women==
Bhupesh Gupta was a
great champion of the
weaker sections of soci-
ety: the Harijans,
Adivasis, the khet
mazdoors, women and
others. Both inside and
outside Parliament, he
utilised every opportu-
nity to further their cause.
He was happy when
] (BKMU) was
formed in 1968 at Moga,
Punjab. In May, 1972,
Bhupesh delivered inau-
gural address at the
second conference of
BKMU held at
Mannargudi in Tamil
Nadu.

He demanded strict
implementation of minimum wages, regular employment and legis-
lation to protect the
weaker sections and im-
prove their living and
working· (e.g. Rajya
Sabha Debates, Decem-
ber 6, 1962) He said,
without improving the
lot of agricultural workers, all the talk about
rural development was
useless.

In 1975, when the International Women’s Yearbegan, he made an im-
passioned speech in
Parliament urging the
government to take con-
crete measures to
improve the social status
and living conditions of
the vast majority of
women and not confine
to celebrations alone.” (In
RS, May 13, 1975) In this
speech, he observed:
“Emancipation of
women is not a sectarian
problem of emancipation of a section of the people. It is essentially a
problem of emancipation of womankind…the very foundation ultimately of our social life.”

==On secularism and national integration==
Bhupesh was in-charge of the
sub-committee of CEC
CPI on National Integration. He opined that
discrimination against
Harijans was an impor-
tant factor hindering
process of national inte-
gration. Bhupesh used
every possible forum to
raise his powerful voice
in the defence of the secu-
lar democratic set-up of
our country and for
strengthening national
integration. He was
party’s representative
and main spokesman in
the National integration
council for nearly 15
years. He stressed that
the fight against commu-
nalism was a matter of
our survival as a
civilised and forward-
looking society. He
meticulously worked
out concrete and con-
structive proposals for
meetings of NIC to defeat
the designs of such forces
and preserve secular set
up. At NIC held in
Srinagar in June, 1968, he
made an important sug-
gestion saying that in
case of lack of confidence
on the part of minority
community in a dis-
turbed area on any
official, he should prima
facie transferred imme-
diately. For breakdown
of communal peace in
any area, conduct of all
officials should be held
responsible.

==A powerful writer and speaker==
He had eight books in
English to his credit,
namely: i) Freedom and
the Second Front; (ii)
Terror over Bengal; (iii)
Second Five Year Plan -
A critique; (iv) The Big
Loot: An Analysis of for-
eign exploitation in
India; (v) Why this Food
Crisis; (vi) Quit Com-
monwealth; (vii) India
and American aggres-
sion in Vietnam; and
(viii) Right reaction’s bid
for power. Bhupeshda
wrote quite a few books
in Bengali also, for ex-
ample: (i) Nehru Sarkarer
Swarup; (ii) Pak-Markin
Samarik Chukti 0 Markin
Samrajyabad; and (iii)
Kala Kanuner Rajatva.
They reflect an eloquent
testimony to the intellec-
tual height of Bhupesh
Gupta.

He exhorted that the
Rajya Sabha should al-
ways be a “vibrant and
living institution” to
mirror the urges and as-
pirations of the people.
For example, in a discus-
sion in Rajya Sabha on
decision of the U.S. Gov-
ernment to resume arms
supply to Pakistan,
Bhupesh Gupta very
aptly remarked: “It is
quite clear that the United
States today wants to
build a new balance of
military power in our
region, and therefore
they are interested in
using Pakistan as a mili-
tary base. So it should not
be taken as if only Paki-
stan is interested in
building up the arms race
and America is not or that
America is just a seller of
arms. .... The US imperi-
alism knows very well
that unless India is brow-
beaten, curbed, menaced
and threatened, it would
not be possible for them
to have their domineer-
ing say in this region of
South Asia. Therefore,
they made us a special
target and that is why they
are supplying once again
arms to Pakistan.
(Bhupesh Gupta in Rajya
Sabha, RS Debates, March
10, 1975)

He was often sarcastic
but never vulgar, bril-
liant in his argument but
humble, and was in his
elements when it came to
questions pertaining to
the cause of the people.
He was literally a cham-
pion of the toiling
millions and the greatest
defender of the down-
trodden and the
oppressed.

He never counte-
nanced any single flaw of
the treasury benches and
had complete mastery
over parliamentary
rules and procedures.
Nothing mattered to him
more than the supremacy
and dignity of the two
Houses of Parliament.
Bhupesh Gupta was a
master of parliamentary
techniques, and used all
the possible openings:
special mentions, calling
attention, short notice
questions, haIf-an-hour
discussions, and ques-
tions, etc, to put across
his point of view. Be-
sides, on major issues like
foreign policy,
President’s address,
Finance Bill, Appropria-
tion Bill and discussions
on working of ministries,
he used to make excel-
lent speeches laced with
solid arguments.

To give an illustra-
tion, on April 22, 1954,
when Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru stated
in Rajya Sabha that “It has
been the policy of Gov-
ernment for the last six
years not to allow any
foreign troops to pass
through or fly over In-
dia”, it was Bhupesh
Gupta who brought to
the notice of the House a
newspaper report saying
that on April 24, 1954, an
American ‘Globemaster’
carrying French troops to
Indo-China landed at
Dum Dum Airport and
then left after refuelling.
He quoted another report
of April 27, 1954, stating
that a ‘Skymaster’ belong-
ing to the French Air
Force landed at Dum
Dum and left for Indo-
China. A few days later,
he again referred to a re-
port which said that on
May 12, 1954, a
‘Skymaster’ belonging to
the French Air Force had
touched down at
Calcutta and “36 French
soldiers lived for a few
hours in Grand Hotel in
Room Nos. 315, 320, 466
and 490, and at about 3.30
a.m. in the early hours of
morning they left.” Ev-
erybody, friend and foe
alike, admired Bhupesh
Gupta’s masterly and
exceptional qualities as
a parliamentarian. He
was rightly referred to as
“the stormy petrel” of the
Rajya Sabha.

==Death==
Bhupesh Gupta was
admitted in the Central
Clinical Hospital in ] in last week of June.
He was operated for
stomach cancer on July
29, 1981.

He was recovering but died of severe
heart attack in Moscow
on August 6, 1981.
Prime Minister Smt.] had said
on his demise, “…with
the death of Comrade
Bhupesh Gupta, the nation loses one of its most dedicated and eloquent
sons.”

Bhupesh Gupta was
widely mourned.


==References== ==References==
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] ]
] ]
]


{{WestBengal-politician-stub}} {{WestBengal-politician-stub}}
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Latest revision as of 13:21, 22 October 2024

Indian politician
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The Right HonourableBhupesh GuptaMP
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
1952–1981
ConstituencyWest Bengal
Personal details
Born(1914-10-20)20 October 1914
Itna, Mymensingh District, Bengal Province, British India
Died6 August 1981(1981-08-06) (aged 66)
Moscow, Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union
Parent
  • Mahesh Chandra Gupta (father)
OccupationParliamentarian
Part of a series on
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Bhupesh Gupta (Bengali: ভূপেশ গুপ্ত) (20 October 1914 – 6 August 1981) was an Indian politician and a leader of the Communist Party of India.

He was one of the senior communist leaders and parliamentarians in Rajya Sabha. He was elected on 13 May 1952 as a Member of the Rajya Sabha and remained on the post till his death in 1981. He was the longest-serving member of the Rajya Sabha at the time of his death.

Early life

He was born on 20 October 1914, at Itna, in the erstwhile Mymensingh District of Bengal Province in British India. He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta. Bhupesh Gupta joined the freedom movement of India in his early years when he was active in the Bengal revolutionary group Anushilan Samiti.

He did his Barrister-at-law from University College London and was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple, London. In England he was a close friend of Mrs. Indira Gandhi as both they participated in the activities of the India League, though their political conviction was different in later course.

Later life

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha for five terms from West Bengal, from 13 May 1952 till his death. He was reelected in 1958, 1964, 1970 and 1976. He was a skilled parliamentarian. He died in Moscow on 6 August 1981.

References

  1. ^ Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta (PDF). New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat. October 1990. p. 1. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  2. Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta (PDF). New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat. October 1990. p. 8. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  3. "Bhupesh: Some Reminiscences". Mainstream magazine.
  4. "Remembering Bhupesh Gupta on his Birth Centenary". Mainstream magazine.
  5. "Indira Wanted Soviets On Board For The Emergency". The New Indian Express.
  6. Datta 2008, p. 592
  7. Eminent Parliamentarian Monograph Series - Bhupesh Gupta (PDF). New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat. October 1990. p. 11. Retrieved 4 April 2024.

Sources

  • Datta, Asit, ed. (2008), "Some Alumni of Scottish Church College", 175th Year Commemoration Volume, Kolkata, India: Scottish Church College, OCLC 243677369
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