Perhaps YOU don’t know what you are talking about !!!

In a recent article in an Indian business newspaper (the collaborating partner of Wall Street Journal), none other than former West Bengal CM Siddharth Shankar Ray, who was Jyoti Basu’s personal friend and bosom buddy, has written warmly and affectionately about his long-time friendship with Jyoti-babu (starting from 1947 onwards) inspite of the two differing on ideology and politics.

Through various personal anecdotes, Ray’s fondness for Basu and Ray’s help in preventing Basu from being arrested (during the emergency) have been highlighted in his tribute to Basu.

In that article, Ray mentions how he found out that Jyoti Basu did not know to read or write Bengali.

Jyoti Basu conveniently blamed his lack of Bengali-language skills on his alma mater (St. Xavier’s) which did not teach Bengali to its students. But what prevented Jyoti-babu from learning his mother-tongue Bengali at home or after he entered politics or atleast, after he became CM?

Of course, eloquence in English was not a problem to an Anglicized Basu. His distaste for his own heritage is reflected in his refusal to learn read and write in his own mother-tongue.

It is true views on Jyoti Basu are very polarised, but you should authenticate statements like –
“Another interesting fact about Jyoti Basu is that he could neither read Bengali nor write Bengali”
This is mud slinging of the worst sort without knowing anything you are talking about

Thank you very much. I felt like I wrote that article myself. Abhijit Majumder took the words right out of my mouth.

@Utsav CHakraborty
And to think Jyoti Basu’s family hailed from Barudi (near Dhaka). Instead of learning from history and protecting West Bengal, he f**ked up our future by trying to be too-clever-by-half. JB insisted on dropping our West Bengal’s pants collectively and bending over to the Bangladeshi infiltrators and chanting (Chatur style): ‘Jahanpanah, tussi great ho. “Tofu” qabool karo.’

Jyoti Babu gave the finishing touch to the ruin that Partition and the displacement of millions of Hindus started, and 1958 and 71 fed.

RIP JB…I hope Jyoti Basu gets reincarnated in China – his holy land. Given his track record in WB, he will be able to help improve India for a change by helping China go down the toilet, as well.