VZCZCXRO1703
RR RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHNEH
DE RUEHCI #0015 0191218
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191218Z JAN 10
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2537
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2441
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 1035
RUEHNEH/AMCONSUL HYDERABAD 0101
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 1038
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0648
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 3168

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000015 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INSB (TITUS) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL IN BD
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL LAYS FORMER CHIEF MINISTER JYOTI BASU TO REST 
 
REF: Kolkata 4 
 
¶1. (U) Jyoti Basu, former West Bengal Chief Minister and 
co-founder of the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M), 
died January 17 in Kolkata.  The 95 year old Basu succumbed to 
pneumonia after two weeks of hospitalization (Reftel). 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) The West Bengal government closed on January 18 for the 
first of two official days of mourning.  On January 19, 
thousands of people waited patiently to say their final 
good-byes to Basu as he lay in state in the State Assembly 
Building.  Among those paying their respects were Sonia Gandhi, 
chair of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, and 
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who flew to Kolkata 
from Dhaka specifically for the event.  The entire state cabinet 
of Kerala, which like West Bengal is also led by the CPI-M, flew 
to Kolkata to mourn the loss of their comrade.  Post's Acting 
ConGen laid a wreath and signed the condolence book.  While 
public and private schools were closed, private sector 
establishments continued with business as usual.  The city 
remained calm, life continued as before and in some quarters one 
would not have even known that the longest serving chief 
minister in independent India lay in state less than a mile away. 
 
 
 
¶3. (U) Media reaction to Basu's death has been balanced, 
focusing on both his positive and negative contributions to 
India's political narrative.  Journalists have acknowledged his 
role as a leading politician in post-Independence India, who 
created space for "the Left" in India and who may have had the 
chance to do more had the party allowed him to become prime 
minister in 1996.  Obituaries have highlighted accomplishments 
such as land reform and introduction of local governance in the 
state, while simultaneously recognizing negative legacies such 
as strikes and labor destructions, politicization of the police 
force, an almost two-decade removal of English language 
instruction from government primary schools, and flight of 
industry from the state. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Today, people in Kolkata and across the national 
political spectrum seem to be remembering and honoring Jyoti 
Basu more for the strong political leader that he was, and less 
for the ideologies or policies that he espoused.  His narrative 
was an essential part of the Indian political one, just as 
communism was part of the 20th century's.  And at the viewing, 
one had to wonder whether the tears were being shed for the man 
who most recently passed, or for the movement whose time has 
come and gone.  West Bengal will have to wait until 2011 to find 
out how many people Mamata Banerjee, Railways Minister, leader 
of the state's opposition party and Chief Minister-in-Waiting, 
was speaking for when she stated that Basu represents "the first 
and last chapter of the Left Front government" in West Bengal. 
 
CUMMINS