A COMMITED LEADER

Jyoti Basu was born on 8 July, 1914 as Jyotirindra Basu into an upper middle-class Bengali family in Calcutta. His father, Nishikanta Basu, was a doctor from the village of Barodi in Dhaka District, East Bengal (now in Bangladesh), while his mother Hemalata Basu was a housewife.

After his studies in England in the year 1935 for Law, he got interested in activities of politics through the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1940 he completed his studies and qualified as a Barrister. In the same year he returned to India. In 1944 Mr. Jyothi Basu became involved in trade union activities when CPI delegated him to work amongst the railway labourers. When B.N. Railway Workers Union and B.D. Rail Road Workers Union merged, Mr. Jyothi Basu became the general secretary of the union, starting his political carrier from there, till time he is loved and respected by all persons, not from his party but people from all walks of life.

He served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him India's longest-serving Chief Minister as of 2009^[update]. He was a member of the CPI (M) Politburo from the time of the party's founding in 1964 until 2008.

Now as he is hospitalised, let’s hope for his good health, and look forward to work more for the working class and for the people who suffer, and who needs justice to be done.