A revered Indian communist leader who died Sunday will not be cremated or buried, because he bequeathed his body to medical science.

Jyoti Basu, longstanding founding Politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and former Chief Minister of West Bengal state for 23 unbroken years, died at age 95 from pneumonia and multiple organ failure.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “The country has lost a great son who was a great statesman and great patriot.”

Former PM and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Behari Vajpayee noted: “His death ends a chapter in the country’s politics.”

A funeral service yesterday at the CPM headquarters was attended by dignitaries like Indian Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, opposition BJP leader L. K. Advani and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Later, Jyoti Basu’s son handed over the late CPM leader’s body to Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital’s Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research. According to the Times of India, “Basu’s eyes had already been harvested soon after his death on Sunday.”

The Telegraph of Kolkata reported that the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) wants the dead Marxist leader’s brain.

“Basu’s brain would be extremely useful for the kind of research that our repository facilitates,” said S. K. Shankar, professor and head of neuropathology at Nimhans.

Walking through the streets of Kolkata, an enormous procession of mourners bade an emotionally charged farewell to Jyoti Basu. The West Bengal government accorded his body a 21-gun salute, usually reserved for heads of state.
HEMRAJ MUNIRAM