New Delhi: With military personnel sounding the Last Post under an overcast sky, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames at Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat cremation ground with full state honours Saturday, bringing the curtains down on the illustrious life of the Congress stalwart, who pulled India out of an economic morass and redefined the country’s foreign policy.
His wife Gursharan Kaur and his three daughters, President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, members of the Gandhi family, and foreign dignitaries, including King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, were among those present at the last rites.
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the three armed service chiefs also paid their last respects to Singh, who had served two consecutive terms as the prime minister from 2004 to 2014. His funeral pyre was lit around 12.50 pm by his eldest daughter Upinder Singh amid the chanting of Sikh religious hymns.
Singh, who was 92, was given a ceremonial Guard of Honour and a 21-Gun Salute by the members of the three forces.
He breathed his last Thursday night at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after sudden loss of consciousness at home.
His mortal remains were earlier taken to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters on Akbar Road. Its rain-soaked lawns were thronged by hundreds of people, who had turned up braving the inclement weather to pay their last respects.
The entire Congress high command led by Kharge, former party president Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, and other senior leaders stood in two neat rows, when Singh’s mortal remains, draped in a Tricolour, reached the party headquarters.
Congress had originally planned to allow party workers to pay their last respects to Singh at the AICC office from 8.30 to 9.30 am. But Singh’s mortal remains reached only around 9.15 am, leaving very little time for all the assembled party workers and supporters to catch a last glimpse of the leader.
Rahul, who called the former prime minister his mentor and guide after his death, stood on a ceremonial truck of the Army, along with Singh’s family members, as they made their way to Nigambodh Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna.
Congress Working Committee (CWC) members and several of the party’s MPs followed Singh’s mortal remains in another open vehicle, which also had Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. However, many other lower-level Congress functionaries also hopped on to the vehicle, leading to everyone jostling for space.
The Congress had demanded that Singh’s last rites be conducted at a place, which could be designated as his last resting place. However, the Centre said that a memorial will be built in his honour after a trust is formed.
“Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, Home Minister Shri Amit Shah communicated to Congress President Shri Kharge and the family of Late Dr Manmohan Singh that the Government will allocate space for the memorial. In the meanwhile, cremation and other formalities can happen because a trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it,” read a Press Information Bureau statement Friday night, seeking to put the lid on a snowballing political controversy.
At the cremation ground, members of the Gandhi family sat with Singh’s family. Apart from his daughters, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka were seen trying to comfort his wife Gursharan Kaur, who sat in silence as the ceremonies took place. Singh and Kaur got married in 1958.
Many Congress workers and supporters, who had reached Nigambodh Ghat ahead of the cremation, were not allowed inside due to the paucity of space and to ensure the security of the VVIPs inside.
Some of them aired their disappointment, saying that the cremation should have been held in a bigger space, like the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, made under the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government as a common memorial ground in 2013, where former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee was laid to rest in 2018.
Leaders of the Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which were constituents of the United Progressive Alliance government under Singh, also paid their respects.
TMC Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandopadhyay paid homage to Singh at the Congress headquarters, while DMK MPs Tiruchi Siva and A. Raja were present at Nigambodh Ghat. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi, and Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena also attended the last rites.
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