Farewell, Dr Singh: State funeral to be held at Nigambodh Ghat today

Commoners from all walks of life as well as the country’s top political leaders queued up to pay their last respects to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his 3, Motilal Nehru Marg residence in New Delhi on a cold rainy Friday. Singh, 92, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) the  night before.

 

The government announced on Friday evening that the former PM would be accorded a state funeral and cremated at the national capital’s Nigambodh Ghat at 11.45 am on Saturday.

 

This  triggered a controversy around a memorial for Singh. The Congress expressed its displeasure  at the government’s “unilateral” announcement, saying it had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Singh be cremated at a place on the banks of the Yamuna where his memorial could be built later.  Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government's refusal to find a location for Singh’s cremation and memorial was “nothing but a deliberate insult to the first Sikh PM of India”. Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal posted on X, “Shocking and unbelievable” and “condemnable” that the Centre declined the request of Singh’s family for a memorial.

 

Draped in the tricolour, Singh’s body was brought from AIIMS to the bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi that had been his home after he demitted the PM’s office in 2014.

 

His body lay in a room lined with bookshelves, framed photographs and numerous honours from his illustrious public career.  

 

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union cabinet ministers, chief ministers, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, political leaders and party workers of all hues paid their respects to Singh in the presence of his wife Gursharan Kaur and other family members at the bungalow, which is a minute’s walk from the memorial to former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri at 1, Moti Lal Nehru Marg. 

 

On Saturday, Singh’s body will be taken to the Congress headquarters — 24, Akbar Road — at 8 am for party workers to pay their respects and then funeral procession will reach the Nigambodh Ghat. Notably, Congress workers had refused to allow the cortege of former PM P V Narasimha Rao, the first Congress PM not from the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full term in office, into the party headquarters when he had passed away in December 2004.

 

However, a seven-day national mourning was announced and Singh, who was then the PM, Union cabinet ministers and others had attended Rao’s funeral held in Andhra Pradesh.

 

Rao got a memorial in 2015 with the Modi-led government constructing a memorial ghat for him at the Ekta Sthal Samadhi Complex. Earlier this year, Modi had taken the lead to announce that his government was conferring the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, on Rao.

 

Earlier on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had requested the PM that Singh should be cremated at a place on the banks of the Yamuna where his memorial could be built later. In his telephonic conversation with the PM and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and also in a letter he wrote to Modi, Kharge had urged the government to hold Singh’s last rites at “his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for a memorial of the great son of India”. Kharge said that this would be “in keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former PMs at the very place of their funerals”.

 

In the most recent instance of a state funeral of a former PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s final rites were held at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, situated on the banks of the Yamuna, on August 17, 2018. Later, Modi dedicated ‘Sadaiv Atal’, a memorial to Vajpayee on a plot of land near Rajghat, which a trust funded and the Central Public Works Department built. On December 1, 2012, former PM I K Gujral was cremated on the banks of the Yamuna. Some months later, in 2013, Singh-led UPA government had decided against separate memorials for departed former PMs, and set up a common memorial ground, the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal at Raj Ghat, because of scarcity of space.

 

On Friday morning, Modi chaired a meeting of the Union Cabinet which paid homage to Singh. Modi described his predecessor's death as a big loss to the nation, asserting that his commitment to the people and the country's development would always be respected. In a video message, Modi recalled Singh's life journey after his family's migration to India, leaving behind everything following Partition, as he noted that his numerous achievements since then were no mean feat.

 

The Union Cabinet hailed Singh as an eminent statesman and a distinguished leader who left an imprint on national life.

 

Several world leaders paid tributes to Singh. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim recalled that Singh offered scholarships for his children while he was in prison, and described the former PM as “the midwife of India's emergence as one of the world's economic giants", and as “my mitra, my bhai, Manmohan".

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called him "one of the greatest champions of the bilateral strategic partnership".

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Singh made a major personal contribution to strengthening friendly ties between India and Russia by elevating them to the level of a special privileged strategic partnership.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron said "India has lost a great man" and France a true friend. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Singh's influence transcended national boundaries. As PM from 2004 to 2014, his transformative policies, like the Right to Education Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, reflected his steadfast commitment to equity and inclusivity.

 

China also paid tributes to Singh saying that he made a “positive contribution” to the development of India-China relations recalling a key agreement signed between the two countries during his tenure to address the vexed boundary issue. Pakistan's Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Singh was born in a village in Pakistan's Chakwal district. “He played a notable role in improving Pakistan-India bilateral relations during his tenure as prime minister,” he said.

 

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said in a statement that Singh’s “contributions to Bharat will always be remembered and cherished”. Activist Anna Hazare, the face of the India Against Corruption movement that targeted alleged corruption in Singh’s government, said the former PM was against corruption. 

 

A world leader

 

1.  Manmohan Singh being welcomed by US President George W Bush at the G20 Summit in Washington in 2008 

 

2.  With US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Bali in 2011

 

3.  With Russia’s President Vladimir Putin before their meeting in New Delhi in 2007

 

4.   With Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a trip to Beijing in 2008

 

5.  With Japan’s  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New Delhi in 2007

 

6.  With France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in 2008 

 

7. With Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London in 2009 

 

8.  Meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing in 2008 

 

9.  With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New Delhi in 2008

 

10.  During Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New Delhi in 2008