I have lost great well-wisher in Basu’s death: Pranab Mukherjee
By IANSSunday, January 17, 2010
NEW DELHI - Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said he had lost a great well-wisher with the demise of Communist veteran Jyoti Basu.
“In his death, I lost a great well wisher, the country has lost an able administrator, an outstanding parliamentarian and a charismatic political leader,” Mukherjee told reporters Sunday afternoon.
Stressing that Basu was the longest serving chief minister in contemporary India, Mukherjee said he had also been the “architect of the first UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in 2004 that had been supported by the Left parties from outside”.
“I developed close intimacy with Jyoti-babu from the sixties when he became deputy chief minister in the first United Front government of West Bengal,” he said.
