Gwalior, October 4
It was a day people of Gwalior wished should have never come. As they paid their last respects to Madhavrao Scindia at the Chatri grounds here, there were tears in many an eye.

People stood in silence as Jyotiraditya lit the pyre of his father at 2.10 p.m. It was around the same time four days ago that the Maharaja was killed in a plane crash causing a vacuum in the lives of millions of admirers.

Before the body of the senior Congress leader was consigned to flames, wreaths were laid by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi and Union Ministers L. K. Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Nitish Kumar and Arun Jaitley. Congress Chief Ministers Sheila Dixit, Ajit Jogi, S.M. Krishna and Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretaries and party MPs also paid their tributes to Scindia.

A wreath was laid on behalf of President K.R. Narayanan.

People, some carrying big photographs of Madhavrao, had started converging in the Chatri grounds since early morning today. A large procession followed the body along the 1-km distance between Jai Vilas and the Chatri grounds.

Madhavrao’s body, wrapped in the Tricolour and placed in a bow-shaped “viman” made of sandalwood was carried to the specially-erected platform in the Chatri grounds by Army officers and members of the Scindia family. In the front of the funeral procession was an Army band followed by soldiers of an air defence unit with their arms reversed. Alongside the viman, whose arch was wrapped in red cloth, were bearers attired in the martial dress of the Marathas .

Jyotiraditya went through the elaborate customs, including tonsuring of head in a pavilion near the place of cremation. As he stood on the platform performing the last rites, people could not help comparing him to Madhavrao. “Jyotiraditya is looking just like Madhavrao Scindia looked when he was lighting the pyre of Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia eight months ago,” recalled a local. “The Maharaja had a lot of regard for his mother though they had political differences,” he added.

The platform in the Chatri grounds where Madhavrao’s last rites were performed is only a few hundred yards away from the memorial of his mother. Suddenly bereft of a benefactor’s hand, residents of Gwalior wish that someone from the royal family, preferably Jyotiraditya, takes over from where his father has left.

Apart from coverage of the procession and funeral on the local cable network, big screens had been placed in certain areas of the city for people who wanted to pay their tributes. Security around the Chatri grounds was tight and many persons were refused entry by security personnel.