Goodbye,beloved Basu

It was handed over to the government-run SSKM hospital,to which Basu had donated his body,after full state honours at Mohur Kunj.

Leaders like Biman Bose and Brinda Karat were in tears while Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stood silent for almost a minute by Basu’s body. He was seen wiping tears. Almost the entire CPM politburo,including general secretary Prakash Karat,was present.

But the final ceremony was not without its dose of glitches. Though he was given full state honours,the national anthem was not played during the gun salute. Instead,it was the Communist International song.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi paid homage to Basu in the Assembly where the body was kept for about five hours. She personally conveyed her condolence to Basu’s family.

“On behalf of the Congress party and on my own behalf I mourn the death of Comrade Jyoti Basu,a leader of vision and conviction,idealism and accomplishment,practical realism and high values,who served his people,his country and his party with total dedication and absolute selflessness,” Sonia wrote in the condolence book. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,accompanying Sonia,described him as a “veritable colossus in Indian politics”.

BJP leader L K Advani also paid his tributes to the “great stalwart of the Marxist movement”.

Among others who turned up were RJD chief Lalu Prasad,JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda,BJP chief Nitin Gadkari,TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu,Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar,Kerala CM V S Achutanandan,Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren and SP leader Amar Singh.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina also flew in to Kolkata to bid farewell to an “old friend of Bangladesh”.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent his representative to personally hand over a condolence message.