It is rumoured that the veteran Communist leader of India and former Chief Minister of West Bengal was died yeasterday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to reach Calcutta today (Jan.7) to call on the veteran Communist leader Jyoti Basu.On January 1, Jyoti Basu was hospitalised with pneumonia.
The 95-year-old veteran Communist leader was admitted to AMRI Hospital in Salt Lake. In July 2009, Basu was admitted to the same hospital after suffering from transient loss of consciousness while brushing his teeth. In 2008, he had to stay in hospital for several days after he fell at home and a haemorrhage was detected in his brain.
Jyoti Basu was born on July 8, 1914 at Harrish Road in Calcutta. Jyoti Basu graduated with honours from the Arts Faculty of the Presidency College in 1935. He went to UK to study law. Returning to India, he started practicing law. In 1977, the first Left Front Government was founded in West Bengal and Basu became the Chief Minister and remained the Chief Minister till 2000. His government made land reforms, which provided land to more than one million sharecroppers. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)The C.P.I. (M.) voted against a proposal in 1996 to allow Jyoti Basu to lead a national coalition government in the Centre. Basu described the decision as a ‘historic blunder’.