I am delighted to learn that Saugata Roy, a veteran leader of Trinamul Congress (TMC) has convincingly won the Lok Sabha seat from the Dum Dum constituency for the fourth time in a row against all odds: his age, allegations of TMC corruption, aggressive campaign by the BJP and even disagreements within his own party about his nomination. Saugata had strong support from Mamata Banerjee who had said in a pre-election speech that age does not matter and TMC needs both old and new. Saugata was my classmate at Presidency College (PC) and also in the M.Sc. class at University of Calcutta.
The purpose of this essay is not to analyse his political views or personality or career in politics; it is a nostalgic reminiscence of my college days with the realization that he exhibited many early signs about his future leadership. Saugata (extreme right in accompanying photograph; the writer is on the extreme left) caught my attention on my first day at PC. During a break in classes, he and another classmate engaged in a contest to see who could name all 50 states of the US. Coming from a school outside Kolkata, I was surprised to see such an obsession with a foreign country; I could probably name not more than twenty states. Saugata exhibited a similar preoccupation with the US when he declared that the subject of his essay (in the given category “My Hero”) at the Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search exam was “John Fitzgerald Kennedy”. Saugata seemed to like a Kennedy-style leadership featuring strong anti-communist but liberal policies within a capitalist framework. He probably did not find his ideal ideology in Indian politics and switched from the Congress party to TMC.
Despite his obsession with the US during his college days, I seldom saw him in a western outfit; his attire was always the same – dhoti and punjabi, made of khadi or cotton, the trademark of Indian political leaders. Saugata seemed to know almost everything about any given subject. Once I asked him about his secret. He said that he read every book he got his hands on, but only the first and last page and the inside cover which had a bio of the author and sometimes a synopsis. His other trait was a biting sense of humour often bordering on being inappropriate. I remember his line: “Do not give too much attention to your parents because they would climb up on your head”. Clearly, he was fiercely independent and not planning a career moulded by his parents. Saugata became a close friend. Apart from picnics with the whole class, I went on a trip to Giridih in Bihar (now Jharkhand) with him and four other friends.
My fondest memory from that trip is him telling a ghost story one night when the bungalow where we stayed had a power outage. His style of storytelling totally captivated his audience. I still get goosebumps when I think of that evening. When I went back to India after my mother passed away, Saugata showed up to offer his condolences even though I did not inform him about my mother’s death nor my visit. I was touched by his gesture. On another occasion, my father ran into some problems with the neighbourhood “mastans” because he said something derogatory to one of them. My father was fearful of some retribution. Saugata took care of the situation, and I did not even know about the incident. During my last visit to Kolkata, he arranged my accommodation for a few days at a guest house through his connections. He has always been a good, reliable friend, one who never forgets his friends. Saugata could easily socialize and build rapport with students from all backgrounds in college regardless of whether they came from some rural high school in Midnapur or some elite English-speaking school in Kolkata.
This is a key requirement for anyone aspiring to be a successful political leader. I worked with him side by side in preparation of posters and other paraphernalia for a protest demonstration he led in front of a locked PC during the infamous Naxal movement which caused the college to shut down for over four months. I remember him telling me his experience of meeting Indira Gandhi for the first time as the General Secretary of Chhatra Parishad: “I shook her hands and it felt soft like butter”. He has been hobnobbing with national leaders since college days. Despite his popularity at college and easy-going personality, I never saw him in the company of co-eds in a romantic sense. I once asked him about the reason. He said that “my problem is that if I visit the house of a female student I invariably get engaged in a political discussion with her father. Even if I bring up the subject of his daughter’s marriage in some way, the father will invariably seek my help in finding a suitable groom. It is very difficult to say at that stage that the right person is yours truly”. I believe that the reason was his focus on his goal; he considered spending idle time with female classmates as a complete waste.
I was happy and excited when Saugata not only won the election for an MP from the Dumdum constituency but also briefly became a central minister in the Charan Singh government. I chuckled when I learnt that he became a physics professor at Ashutosh College because he never appeared to be a professor-type. He must have figured out that a professor’s job would give him a steady income while providing ample time to pursue his first love – politics and at the same time with a respectable title. I was delighted when Saugata got a second chance to serve in the central cabinet under Manmohan Singh. I admire his loyalty to Mamata Banerjee even though he was opposed to her in the past on various issues. Saugata was probably instrumental in persuading another one of our contemporaries at PC, Amit Mitra of Economics, to join the West Bengal Cabinet as a finance minister. Saugata has all the attributes of a leader. He is smart, passionate about causes, articulate and confident with a commanding voice – traits sadly lacking in most political leaders.
I liked the way he handled the alleged bribery scandal in the so-called Narada sting operation where he was secretly filmed taking money. Saugata pointed out that it takes a lot of money to run a campaign and most of that money comes from donations just like the one photographed. Saugata’s elder brother Tathagata Roy seems to hold a different political view even though they were not only raised by the same parents but also went to the same high school, St. Lawrence. Tathagata is a member of the BJP and a strong supporter of Narendra Modi. He served as the governor of Tripura and Meghalaya. I attribute this to the difference in their college education: Saugata’s physics education gave him a liberal viewpoint; physicists must be open to all possibilities because they are out to explain how the universe works. Tathagata, who is an engineer having graduated from BE college, has a more practical and structured mindset which led him on a conservative path. I was saddened at the news of Saugata’s wife, Dolly’s death. Dolly is fondly remembered as the famous “tea-taster” by people who visited her tea shop. I will always cherish his friendship.
(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali) settled in America.