NEW DELHI: Former PM Manmohan Singh will be cremated with full state honours at Nigambodh Ghat here on the banks of Yamuna Saturday.
The announcement by the home ministry triggered a controversy, with Congress saying govt did not heed its request to hold his last rites at a befitting place that could be built into a memorial to him. Congress termed the decision “a deliberate insult to the first Sikh Prime Minister of India”.
The govt said it received a request from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the morning “to allocate space for a memorial” for Singh. In a press release, the home ministry said immediately after the Cabinet meeting, home minister Amit Shah communicated to 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.”
Kharge spoke to the PM and later followed it up with a letter. Govt sources said during separate conversations with the PM and Shah, Kharge “appreciated” the point of view that a memorial site cannot be identified immediately, but Congress later chose to make charges against govt.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a late-evening statement said, “The people of our country are simply unable to understand why govt of India could not find a location for his cremation and memorial that is befitting of his global stature, record of outstanding achievements, and exemplary service to the nation for decades.”
In his letter to Modi, Kharge demanded that Singh’s last rites be conducted at a place where a memorial can be built. “I also wrote to the home minister,” Kharge told the Congress Working Committee that met to pay homage to Singh.
Cremation site not befitting stature of ex-PM, says Cong
When Kharge explained the demand and his communication with Modi to CWC, sources said a member of the Gandhi family even suggested that the cremation could be done at Shakti Sthal or Veer Bhumi – the resting places of former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Sources said Kharge informed that the PM had referred the matter to the home minister and the message was that the issue would be looked into later.
However, a govt announcement for cremation at Nigambodh Ghat later in the evening left Congress agitated, with the party viewing the decision to cremate Singh at a place where no former PM has been cremated as not befitting his stature.
Govt sources said Congress was making false allegations. “Both PM and Shah explained the issue in detail to Congress president and emphasised that govt was one with Congress and all others on building a proper memorial for former PM Singh,” a source said.
Meanwhile, Sukhbir Singh Badal of SAD claimed that the Union govt had “declined the request Dr Manmohan Singh Ji’s family for performing the funeral and last rites at a place where an appropriate and historic memorial may be built to commemorate his unparalleled services to the nation”. He added, “This place should be Rajghat… in keeping with the settled practice and tradition followed in the past.”
The Union cabinet earlier in the day decided that Singh will be accorded a state funeral on Saturday at 11.45am and a half-day holiday declared in all central govt offices and central PSUs. The home ministry said the defence ministry would make arrangements for the state funeral with full military honours.
Sources said going by the decision taken by the Manmohan Singh govt in 2013, the memorial of the former PM would be built at ‘Rashtriya Smriti’, at the Samadhis Complex on the Yamuna bank near Rajghat where the memorial of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other former presidents and PMs have come up.
An official statement issued at the time had mentioned that separate memorials constructed earlier for departed national political heads near Rajghat took up large space. “In view of cabinet decision taken in the year 2000 that ‘henceforth govt shall not develop any Samadhi for departed leaders’ and the paucity of land at the Samadhis complex area, ‘Rashtriya Smriti’ is being developed to perform last rites of departed national political heads . The Smriti area will provide space for last rites of departed national political heads in future, besides space for a public gathering,” it had said.
Barring four – Morarji Desai, Gulzarilal Nanda who twice served as interim PM, P V Narasimha Rao and V P Singh – all PMs have been cremated in the Capital.