Floral tributes to Jyoti Basu on first death anniversary
By IANSMonday, January 17, 2011
KOLKATA - Life-size portraits of Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu adorned with garlands lined street corners and his recorded speeches and communist songs played across West Bengal since morning as people paid tribute to the former chief minister Monday on his first death anniversary.
Basu’s party — the ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) — launched a statewide fund collection drive for a proposed research centre named after him.
An NGO Pather Panchali organised a memorial programme at Indira Bhawan, the house where the Communist patriarch spent his last days. Basu’s admirers, who included his long time comrade and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, visited the house and paid respects to the former chief minister.
The state unit of CPI-M began the ten-day fund collection drive for building the ‘Jyoti Basu Centre For Social Studies and Research’, at Jyoti Basu Nagar on the northern outskirts of Kolkata. The state housing department has already sanctioned land for the project.
The centre will facilitate those who want to study the country’s communist movement, and Jyoti Basu’s life and struggles. It will consist of a library packed with Marxist literature, an auditorium and a seminar room.
Programmes were also organised in other parts of the state in remembrance of Basu.
CPI-M’s Bengali mouthpiece ‘Ganashakti’ republished an article penned by Jyoti Basu in 2008. It also carried a piece by state secretary Biman Bose, which appealed to the party cadres to maintain constant touch with the people and strengthen the unity of the masses.
Bengali news channels telecast special programmes and documentaries on Basu’s life and achievements. Local newspapers also came out with articles on Basu.
One of the nine founding politburo members of the CPI-M, Basu was at the helm of affairs in West Bengal for over 23 years - the longest chief ministerial tenure in India.
He almost became India’s prime minister in 1996 at the head of a centre-Left United Front government. But the CPI-M vetoed the proposal, and he later dubbed the party’s decision a “historical blunder”.
Born July 8, 1914, in Kolkata to a wealthy family, Basu took to Communism in London. On his return to India, he joined the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) and plunged into the Left movement. Basu made his debut in electoral politics in 1946. He was elected to the state assembly 11 times, losing only once in the controversial 1972 elections.
After the CPI split in 1964, he joined the CPI-M and was elected to its central committee and politburo.
He was West Bengal chief minister from 1977 until he retired in late 2000 due to ill health.
