ISAS Briefs

Mr Jyoti Basu – India’s most prominent and senior communist leader – passed away on 17 January 2010. Mr Basu had the distinction of being the Chief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal for more than two decades. His death marks the end of an era in Indian and West Bengal politics. This brief traces the critical events during the political career of Mr Basu that spanned for more than six decades and concludes that while Mr Basu was both a gentleman and a communist, he was more of the former than the latter.