WB Assembly pays tribute to Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, 10 Mar: Glowing tributes were paid to former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu in the Assembly amidst charges by Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee saying successors of the late CPI-M patriarch were not following his footsteps.

Speaking on a condolence resolution in the House, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recalled his association with him and said Basu had played an important role in consolidating and improving parliamentary democracy in the country.

Basu, he said, believed in democracy, never introduced black laws and was the first to set up the Human Rights Commission.

Dubbing him as a secular leader, Bhattacharjee said he efficiently handled the riots in the state after the killing of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and after the Babri Masjid incident. Even the way Basu functioned as opposition leader in the House should also be emulated, he added.

Speaking after him, Chatterjee (Trinamool Congress) said Basu's successors were not following him or his ideology.

He described Basu as a mass leader and political stalwart. TMC had criticised some of his acts "but at the same time Basu also talked to Mamata Banerjee and expressed his reservation on the role of the present LF government.


(PTI)