Kolkata, Jan 19 (IANS) The outpouring of grief, the crowds lining the streets, the cortege weaving its way through a city come to a standstill. India bid a tearful adieu to another beloved leader Tuesday — but this journey ended in hospital with Left patriarch Jyoti Basu dedicating his body to medical science.

In what is a first, the last journey ended not in a cremation or a burial ceremony; in fact, it was no funeral procession at all.

Jyoti Basu began his final journey from the private AMRI Hospital, where he had been admitted for pneumonia and multiple organ failure, and ended at the state-run SSKM Hospital where his body would be used for the furtherance of medical science.

His eyes had already been harvested.

The body entered the hospital through the VIP gate of the hospital amid a tight security cordon, received by the anatomy department.

No memorials for this Marxist leader, who was West Bengal chief minister for 23 years, no death anniversaries to be observed at his last resting place, no flowers at his grave.

Closure, if any, would not be easy for his many followers.

~ Indo Asian News Service

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