PM offers expert medical help for Basu

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday assured the medical board treating CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu of all possible help including arranging medical experts for more effective medical care for the ailing Marxist veteran.

On Thursday, Mr Singh visited the hospital where the ailing former chief minister of West Bengal is on life-support system. He met the team of doctors who were treating Mr Basu. The prime minister was accompanied by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The PM was on a whistle-stop trip to the city to purely call on the ailing Mr Basu, who’s health took a turn for the worse on Wednesday when he had to be put on the ventilator.

Even though the prime minister did not speak to the media, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee told reporters at the hospital that the prime minister had asked the doctors treating Mr Basu not to hesitate to seek his help in getting medical experts from any corner of the country for expert advise. The prime minister reached Kolkata by a special flight and spent some 20 minutes at the hospital before leaving for the capital.