Asim Dasgupta: From state Finance minister to now civic poll candidate

KOLKATA: From GST drafterin-chief to contesting municipality elections, Bengal's longest serving finance minister Asim Dasgupta's plight perhaps reflects the fortunes of a CPM politician. It also tells, in some ways, the state of the party: an organisation that has lost its way in time, and where aspiring members have no voice.

The 70-year-old professor, dressed in his formal whites, goes to every household in ward number 32 of Bidhannagar Municipality (Salt Lake), seeking support of the electorate. Dasgupta has nothing to complain about, indeed he is reconciled to the role he is playing.

"I know people are raising questions — how once a national figure is fighting a municipal election? But, in CPM, we do not have such issues. We have taken the election to prove the massive resurgence of the Left," said Dasgupta, who served as Bengal's finance minister for 24 years. The MIT grad continues to be an adviser to the empowered committee of state finance ministers. Dasgupta was chairman of the committee from 2000 to 2010 which introduced VAT and was given the responsibility to draft the GST in 2007.

Jyoti Basu's go-to man, Dasgupta, had been the architect of GST. Though he quit the committee after his party's defeat in Bengal in 2011, he still feels non-implementation of GST would negate the financial reforms in the country.

"We were assigned the job of framing GST in 2007. By October 2009, there had been repeated discussions on the issue, and by 2010, at least 80% of the work was done. It needed a constitutional amendment, but later the process slowed down," Dasgupta explained. "I personally think the state and Centre should iron out the differences over GST," said Dasgupta, adding that GST is 'needed' to expedite reforms.

Responding to the issue of CPM's inability to field new candidates for the election, the veteran leader said that the CPM has fielded maximum number of young candidates for this election. "At least, two-third of the candidates are young, but nobody can deny the value of experience. So, the party has nominated one-third experienced candidates too. This is an appropriate combination."

Dasgupta's colleagues say that that there are two sides to his political career: a champion of financial reforms, and an erudite politician who isn't remembered for his political acumen.

Dasgupta, as chairman of the empowered committee, has always been praised for the financial reforms he championed — for steering VAT and framing GST. Even though GST is yet to be implemented, Dasgupta could manage a consensus among 35 states.