Sitaram Yechury’s family upholds leftist tradition by donating body to science

The bodies of Sitaram Yechury, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Jyoti Basu, Somnath Chatterjee, Anil Biswas, and Benoy Chowdhury, have been donated for research and educational purposes. Sitaram Yechury, aged 72, was admitted to AIIMS on 19th August 2024 with pneumonia and passed away on 12th September 2024 at 3:05 PM.

His body was donated to AIIMS, New Delhi. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s body was donated to the Nil Ratan Sircar (NRS) Medical College in Kolkata, and Jyoti Basu’s body was donated to Kolkata’s SSKM hospital.

Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and some other Left leaders including Anil Biswas and Benoy Chowdhury had also pledged to donate their bodies and their families fulfilled their wishes after their deaths. These donated bodies are used by hospitals and medical colleges for research and education purposes, helping advance scientific research, educating future doctors in understanding human anatomy, and aiding in the development of new surgical procedures.

Several political figures expressed their condolences upon Sitaram Yechury’s passing, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who lauded Yechury as a “protector of the Idea of India”, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who expressed her condolences to Yechury’s family, friends, and colleagues.