Solemn farewell to Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) A sea of humanity Tuesday bade a
solemn farewell to the legendary Marxist leader Jyoti Basu,
who was given a state funeral with military honours after
leaders across the political spectrum paid homage to one of
the tallest leaders of the Communist movement in India.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and that
country's former President H M Ershad, Congress President
Sonia Gandhi, Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, senior
BJP leader L K Advani, his party President Nitin Gadkari, and
RJD chief Lalu Prasad were among the mourners, who paid their
respects to the late leader as the body was taken to the state
Assembly earlier in the day.
Men of the Kolkata Armed Police provided a 21-gun
salute after army buglers sounded the last post in military
honours as a mark of respect to the man who, served West
Bengal as Chief Minister for 23 long years and who nearly
became Prime Minister in 1996.
Chief Ministers Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, V S
Achutanandan and Manik Sarkar, CPI(M) General Seceratary
Prakash Karat and other party leaders Biman Bose, Sitaram
Yechury, CPI Leaders Gurudas Dasgupta, D Raja and former Prime
Minister H D Deve Gowda were among those present at Mohor
Kunj, a private park where the military honours were done.
In accordance with the wishes of Basu, who died last
Sunday, his body was donated for medical research and handed
over to the state-run SSKM Hospital authorities. There were no
no religious ceremonies for Basu a non-believer.

Later the army handed over the body, draped in
national tricolour, to Basu's son Chandan for being given to
the hospital.
Workers of the Left parties gathered at the ceremony
sang the communist movement song and shouted "Comrade Basu
Amar Rahe" and "Comrade Basu Lal Salam" as men of the Kolkata
Armed Reserve reversed their arms at Mohor Kunj, the Citizens'
Park.
Basu earned the rare distinction of receiving state
and military honours as a former chief minister of West
Bengal. Left Front chairman Biman Bose said Basu had donated
his body for medical research.
On the last leg of the last journey, the body of the
CPI(M) patriarch was taken to the Mohur Kunj on a gun-carriage
from the Assembly, where it lay in state for five hours from
around 10:00 am.
It took over half an hour to reach the West Bengal
CPI(M) headquarters in Alimuddin Street as crowds swelled on
roads leading to it in spite of the morning chill.
When the hearse, decorated with white flowers and red
party flags, reached the party office senior CPI(M) leaders
greeted it with clenched fist salutes.
The Chief Minister, Karat, his wife and Polit Bureau
member Brinda, Yechuri, the LF chairman and other senior
leaders stood beside the body lying beneath a huge red
hoarding reading 'Lal Selam Jyoti Basu' and gave the clenched
fist salute together.
Basu's body was dressed in a beige kurta with a
waistcoat of a slightly deeper shade as he had worn in life
and also his spectacles.

People filed past the body pausing a moment to give
the clenched fist salute, while a few folded their hands in
namaskar. Some offered flowers, some garlands while some
placed wreaths on the body. Outside, the A J C Bose Road had
turned into a sea of heads.
A stampede broke out when mourners surged into the
assembly after the main gate was opened fully for a brief
period just before the final preparations for handing over the
body to the military pall bearers began. A number of people
fell ill during the stampede.
A short while later six pall-bearers drawn from the
three wings of the Defence forces took the body to a gun
carriage for the more than 10 km-long last journey to Mohur
Kunj.
The pall-bearers carried the body, draped in the
national tri-colour to the gun-carriage and as it began moving
soldiers with reversed arms marched beside it to the roll of
drums.
Throngs of people lined up on either of the road when
the gun carried pulled by a military truck made its slow
movement to its destination. Thousands of people also
followed the gun carriage. PTI SAG
DDC