By IANS,
Kolkata : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be among a host of dignitaries to attend the last journey of Jyoti Basu, whose body would be carried in a gun carriage Tuesday before being handed to a hospital for medical research.
A guard of honour and a gun salute from the police will be given before the Marxist leader’s body is handed over to the the SSKM Hospital here in the evening.
There will be no funeral and no last rites in keeping with Basu’s wishes.
He had already pledged his body for medical research and donated his eyes.
Basu was the last surviving member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)’s first politburo – the party’s highest decision-making body.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will represent the central government, while several other federal ministers including Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and former prime minister H.D. Devegowda will attend the programme.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart L.K. Advani, party president Nitin Gadkari and Janata Dal United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav will fly in to the city Tuesday afternoon to pay their last respects at the state assembly where Basu’s body will be kept for public viewing, BJP sources said.
“The Indian Army will provide the gun carriage for the funeral procession. We will provide the special vehicle right from the Peace haven funeral parlour (located in central Kolkata), till it is handed over to the SSKM Hospital authority in the evening,” a Ministry of Defence spokesperson (Eastern India) told IANS.
“The pallbearers will also be from the Indian Army who will help in carrying the casket of Basu,” the official said.
CPI-M West Bengal secretary Biman Bose said Monday that Basu’s body will be taken from Peace Haven – where it is now lying embalmed – at 7.30 a.m. Tuesday. The cortege will navigate through Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Park Street and A.J.C. Bose Road in the central part of Kolkata and reach the CPI-M’s state headquarters Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan on Alimuddin Street around 8 a.m. and remain there till 9 a.m.
All members of the party’s politburo, central committee, state committee, district-level party cadres and leaders of the state’s ruling Left Front will garland Basu’s body at the party office before the procession reaches the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings for a 10-minute stopover. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee will pay his last respects to his predecessor there.
The cortege will head for the state legislative assembly at 10 a.m. where the body will be kept till 3 p.m. for his followers and other people to pay their last respects.
The last journey will start at 3 p.m. and traverse through Red Road and Cathedral Road and finally terminate at the government-run SSKM Hospital on Harish Mukherjee Road.
Before the body is handed over to the hospital, a gun salute will be given to the former West Bengal chief minister at Mohar Kunj, earlier called Citizens’ Park, located close to the SSKM Hospital premises.
Bose said all members of the CPI-M politburo and central committee will attend the last journey.
Bose said top leaders of other national parties are also scheduled to attend.
Meanwhile, red flags and portraits of Jyoti Basu have been placed along the road leading to the CPI-M’s state headquarters here which is getting ready to bid him the last ‘Lal Salaam’ (Red Salute) Tuesday.
A large portrait of Basu has been kept at the entrance of the building to enable dignitaries and commoners pouring in from different parts of the state and country, to pay their floral tributes to the departed leader.
A hushed silence prevails at the address 31, Alimuddin Street, a part of Basu’s daily itinerary, till old age and ill health confined him to his Salt Lake home.