Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday called on the veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who is in a critical condition at a private hospital here following a pneumonia attack.
Accompanied by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who also received him at the airport, Dr. Manmohan Singh reached the hospital in Salt Lake around 1 p.m. and headed straight for the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) where Mr. Basu is being treated.
He was at the hospital for over 20 minutes. The Prime Minister then left Kolkata from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport.
Mr. Basu was admitted to the hospital near his Indira Bhavan residence on 1 January and is on ventilator support.
