Kolkata, July 09: In an apparent disagreement with his own party, senior CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Assembly Speaker H A Halim today said that had Jyoti Basu become the Prime Minister “the course of the country’s history would have changed”.
“Had Jyoti Basu become Prime Minister the course of the country’s history would have changed,” Halim said at the unveiling of a portrait of Basu at the Assembly premises.
“But since he was a loyal party member he accepted the decision not to be become the Prime Minister,” he added.
Expelled CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee, giving Jyoti Basu memorial lecture on the occasion of the former chief minister’s 97th birth anniversary, said that Basu was entreated in 1996 by the leaders of the United Front in Delhi to be the Prime Minister of India.
“Of course, what followed is history known to all,” Chatterjee said.
–PTI