In Vajpayee's final journey, foster daughter, and not a male, lights pyre

Nation follows PM Modi in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's final journey

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a devout Hindu. But as in life, so in death, he continued to challenge orthodox Hinduism. On Friday evening, at his final resting place near the banks of the Yamuna, his foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya, and not a male relative as orthodox Hinduism mandates, performed the last rites of the lifelong bachelor.

Bhattacharya lit the funeral pyre amid a light drizzle and the sounds of military bugles, a gun salute by soldiers, and the cries of ‘Atal Bihari amar rahein’ (long