Jyoti Basu Passes Away

KOLKATA, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com) - The Marxist leader Jyoti Basu passed away at 95. The dynamic leader who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from June 1977 to November 2000 breathed his last at 11.47 at AMRI Hospital. He was admitted there on January 1 for acute chest congestion and infection. From last night his condition was very critical. He suffered multi-organ failure and was given pacemaker.

Biman Basu, the chairperson of the Left Front coordination committee was seemingly sad about the demise of Jyoti Basu. At around 12.30 he reports, “I have to give you a sad news that Jyoti “Babu” is no longer with us.” The union Home Minister. P. Chidambaram was in Kolkata. He said, “We have just learnt that Jyoti Basu has passed away. He strode like a colossus on the Indian political scene for several decades. He was a great patriot, a great democrat. He lived a full life.”

He was born on July 8, 1914 in Kolkata. He went to London’s Lincoln Inn and became a barrister. After meeting British Communist leaders Harry Politt and Rajani Palme Dutt he decided to take politics seriously. When he returned to India, he became a full time Communist Party of India (CPI) worker. In 1946, he won the election of Bengal Legislative Assembly from the Railway Constituency and gradually emerged as a powerful voice. After the independence of India, Jyoti Basu was elected to the state Legislative 11 times. He brought in agrarian reforms through Operation Barga. He introduced lots of relief measures. Basu was the most successful in his political career in 1996. The combination of parties lead to the formation of United Front. Jyoti Basu was asked to lead the federal government as prime minister. However, he refused saying he would not lead a national government whose policies he could not control.

The former chief minister lived a full life. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Kolkata on Saturday, he said, Jyoti Basu is “a great son of India.”