Kolkata, Jan 19 (Inditop.com) The huge turnout Tuesday proved that the people of West Bengal really loved their former chief minister Jyoti Basu, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Biman Bose said Tuesday while handing over his body to the state-run SSKM Hospital here.
“We have seen that thousands of people thronged the city streets to catch the last glimpse of the deceased Marxist leader. It shows how much they loved Jyoti Basu,” Bose said.
“He (Basu) was almost an apple of everyone’s eye,” he added.
He said Basu’s body was handed over to the hospital following his own wish.
“He always wanted that his body and eyes would be given for the purpose of medical studies. Thus, we are donating his mortal remains to Ganadarpan, which will donate the body to the hospital,” the CPI-M state secretary said, adding the SSKM Hospital authorities have issued a certificate in return.
Ganadarpan is a city-based NGO to which most of the state communist leaders donated their bodies. Bodies of former CPI-M state secretary Anil Biswas and politburo member Benoy Chowdhury were also donated to the organisation after their death a few years back.
Apologising to the people, Bose said: “I am extremely sorry for those who did not get the chance to pay their last respect to Basu. Actually, we had no option but to take the body out considering the time constraint.”
