Indian communist leader Basu dies

Veteran Indian communist leader Jyoti Basu has died at the age of 95.

He led the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and was chief minister of West Bengal state from 1977 to 2000.

Jyoty Basu was credited with restoring stability to the state, and bringing in land reforms. He died in Calcutta after a long illness.

In 1996 he was offered to lead the federal government as PM in a left-of-centre coalition, but his party chose to support it from the outside.

Mr Basu described his party’s decision decision not to join the coalition as a "historic blunder." New Delhi, Jan 17(ANI): Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday deeply condoled the demise of former West Bengal Chief Minister and senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Jyoti Basu, who died at the AMRI Hospital in Kolkata of multiple-organ failure.

“It is a sad day for us as we remember the great son of India. He has served for many decades, not only the people of West Bengal, but India…he dedicated his entire life to the nation. He was a great patriot, great democrat and a great human,” Chidambaram said.

“He suffered a lot for the last fortnight. I am deeply sad and offer my sincere condolences to the people and government of West Bengal,” he added.

Basu was admitted to the hospital on January 1 with acute respiratory failure bordering on pneumonia. He was also undergoing treatment at the hospital for age-related ailments.

On Friday, doctors at the hospital said in a medical bulletin that his condition was very critical and hope for his survival was receding.No sooner were the reports of Jyoti Basu's death at the age of 95 confirmed that Mamata Banerjee proclaimed him 'the first and last chapter of the Left Front government'. He had a strong camaraderie with even her, and his towering leadership over the Bengal Communist party cadre was in a large part responsible for the 23 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

While West Bengal might have fallen behind in the developmental race, Jyoti Basu's land reforms and labour movements made a strong mark on West Bengal. The inability of the party and ideological freeze made it impossible for Jyoti Basu and the state to move into the market-led economic transformation in the nineties. Nevertheless, his legacy extends beyond strikes and industrial inaction.

His biography is almost a chronicle of international Communism, from his student organizing activities in the United Kingdom during the War. The Communist Party was declared illegal in India between 1940 and 1951, and Comrade Basu continued to work behind the scenes to facilitate underground leaders' meetings and interactions with the Congress Party. When the CPI split in 1964, he opted for the CPI(M) and joined the Politburo. He was first elected to the West Bengal Assembly in 1946, and became Deputy Chief Minister in 1969. His first stint as Chief Minister of West Bengal commenced in 1977, and he ruled uninterrupted upto 2000, when he retired for health reasons. He almost became the Prime Minster of India in 1996, until the Politburo vetoed the idea, which he termed a 'historic blunder'.

The Left Front is at a crossroads, with declining vote shares and the prospect of losing its home base, West Bengal, in the Assembly elections next year.