AS the news of Jyoti Basu’s death on 17th January, 2010 spread, Comrade Sohan Singh Aittiana received an angry call. The caller was upset that he was not made part of the Sikh delegation that visited the leader a few days before he passed away. Jyoti Basu was undergoing treatment at the city’s AMRI Hospital then, and the delegation had called on him to wish him speedy recovery. Aittiana, who is associated with the CPI (M) and is a well-connected transporter in Kolkata, led the delegation.
The caller’s anger reflected the affection and popularity that Jyoti Basu had among Sikhs living in West Bengal. The community’s leaders remember him as a saviour, who did not let Congress-led goons murder them during the 1984 pogrom.
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