CPI(M) announces year-long programme for Basu centenary

CPI(M) announced a year-long programme today on the occasion of the birth centenary of Marxist patriarch and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu from July eight.
''A wider programme cannot be chalked out initially as panchayat election is round the corner and also considering the fact that people will be busy in campaigns and polls,'' CPI(M) state secretary and Politburo member Biman Bose said here today.
Bose said the party would project the life and activities of Jyoti Basu during his long political career as also his acumen as a statesman and chief minister of West Bengal which he served for a record 23 years from 1977 to the new generation.

Jyoti Basu, the longest-serving chief minister of any state in the country from 1977 to 2000 before he handed over the mantle to his deputy Buddhadev Battacharjee, is still regarded for his ideals which united the proletariat and strengthened the movement of the working class.
Bose said that the main function would be held at Mahajati Sadan as that the party's application for holding the programme at Nazrul Manch to accommodate a larger crowd was not entertained by the authorities.
The party will also release a memorial volume which will highlight Basu's life and philosophy, sources in it said.
CPI(M)'s labour wing CITU has already announced a year-long programme to mark the occasion.

CITU sources said that the celebration would mainly showcase ideologies of Basu, who was its founder vice-president and focus on the initiatives taken by him to spread the working class movement.