Logistic challenges: Centre justifies Dr Singh’s cremation at Nigambodh

Rainy day, logistical challenges and a late-night request with hardly any time to form a Trust were among several reasons that have been put forth by the BJP as a defence to the Congress’ allegations of cremating former PM Manmohan Singh at Nigambodh Ghat.

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Ashes immersed in Yamuna, antim ardas on January 3

• Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ashes were immersed in the Yamuna river at Astha Ghat, near Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara, on Sunday morning
• Dr Manmohan Singh’s widow Gursharan Kaur and daughters Upinder Singh, Daman Singh and Amrit Singh performed the rituals; antim ardas will be organised at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib on January 3

IK Gujral’s son naresh also wades into cremation row

• After the Cong raised a question mark over the cremation of ex-PM, SAD leader Naresh Gujral also asked the Centre why it made a departure from the norm in the case of India’s only Sikh PM
• “It is baffling that a man who led the country’s economic transformation was not given 250 yards at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal where other former PMs have been cremated,” said Gujral, the son of ex-PM IK Gujral

The Congress has been accusing the saffron party of disrespecting the two-time PM by cremating him at Nigambodh Ghat, a cremation place for commoners, instead of giving him a suitable place at Rajghat where former presidents and PMs have been cremated.

Senior BJP leaders stated that Dr Singh was cremated with full military honours and the Congress was deliberately creating a “controversy out of nothing”.

Union Minister Hardeep Puri said the government received a letter on Thursday, to which a reply was sent by the Home Ministry at three minutes past midnight. “I have the communication with me saying that a request has been received and we are agreeing to it,” Puri said.

He said the government had to provide land to a Trust which would then undertake the construction of a memorial. “We will give land to the Trust at Re 1 rental. All that will be done. Locations have been identified. The cremation was held on a day when it was raining. On Rajghat, there is open land, whereas at Nigambodh Ghat, there are covered structures,” he said.

Puri said the criticism by the Congress was unfounded and the party was deliberately creating a controversy. He also accused the Congress of disrespecting former PM PV Narasimha Rao who was cremated in Hyderabad as the party didn’t allow his mortal remains at its headquarters.

Meanwhile, the ashes of Dr Singh were immersed by his family members as per Sikh rituals in the Yamuna near Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara this morning.

The Union Cabinet had, on May 16, 2013, given approval for the construction of a Rashtriya Smriti, a common memorial site near Ekta Sthal in New Delhi, for performing the last rites of departed national leaders.

“In the past, separate memorials to national leaders were created near Rajghat. In view of the Cabinet decision in 2000 that ‘henceforth, the government shall not develop any samadhi for departed leaders’ owing to the paucity of land at the Samadhi Complex area, the Rashtriya Smriti is being developed to perform the last rites of departed national leaders,” a decade-old statement by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs read.

According to Hardeep Puri, the Ekta Sthal has space for nine samadhis, of which seven were already occupied by those of former presidents and prime ministers.