India's top Communist leaders are stunned and upset over Russian President Vladimir Putin wanting to remove Lenin's mummified body from Moscow's Red Square and give it a final burial.
The Kremlin this week reportedly announced that it was time to bury Lenin's body alongside other Bolshevik leaders.
The news has been received with bewilderment and anger by top Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders like Jyoti Basu and Anil Biswas.
So angry was Basu that he said socialism was finished in Russia and that capitalism had grown deep roots in Moscow.
"They (Russians) have buried Stalin's body and now they want to do the same to Lenin's. This is most unfortunate," Basu said.
Stalin's mummified body was kept alongside that of Lenin for many years, and Basu remembered one of his Russia visits when he had seen the mortal remains of both leaders together at the Red Square.
Also angry was CPI-M's politburo member Anil Biswas who said Lenin's body had remained in Red Square despite several attempts within a quarter in Kremlin to bury it.
"Lenin's mummified body is a Russian heritage and a national memorial in itself. We don't support the move to bury Lenin's body" Biswas said.