Tearful farewell to Jyoti Basu

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of Kolkata to bid a final farewell to Marxist icon the late Jyoti Basu on Tuesday, with many party colleagues breaking into tears. A galaxy of national leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the state funeral that brought West Bengal to a halt.

The legendary Chief Minister of West Bengal was given a military guard of honour accompanied by a formal gun salute by the Kolkata Police, before his body was handed over to the authorities of the Institute of post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), as he had pledged his body to medical research.

A military escort of pallbearers brought the body, mounted on a gun carriage, from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly to Mohur Kunj, a citizen park, where a police contingent waited to present the guard of honour.

In a solemn ceremony, attended by several dignitaries and senior leaders of the CPI(M) and other Left parties, a two-minute silence was observed and three volleys were fired.

With tears in their eyes, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, his colleagues Sitaram Yechury, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and his Kerala and Tripura counterparts V.S. Achuthananadan and Manik Sarkar carried the Basu's body on their shoulders to place it on a makeshift platform raised on the portico.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes to Jyoti Basu at the West Bengal Assembly premises where his body was lying in state. Ms. Gandhi was accompanied by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury also accompanied her.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also paid homage to Jyoti Basu at the Assembly. Ms. Hasina, accompanied by a 30-member high-profile delegation from Bangladesh, stood before the body for about five minutes and placed a wreath. She spoke to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister H.M. Ershad, who was also part of the delegation, paid floral tributes to the late Basu.

The delegation included four of her cabinet colleagues besides leaders of some of the constituents of the ruling 24-party Grand Alliance including Ershad’s Jatiya Party. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Awami League General Secretary and Local Government and Rural Development Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Deputy Leader of Parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury were part of the delegation. Ms. Hasina arrived in Kolkata by a Bangladesh Air Force flight, later left for Dhaka.

Wreaths were laid on behalf of President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari on Basu's body. Former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani were also present.

Among others who offered floral tributes were BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav, Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Nationalist Congress Party chairman Sharad Pawar and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

The Venezuelan ambassador to India placed a wreath on behalf of his country's president Hugo Chavez.

- Asian Tribune -