Govt agrees to Congress request for Manmohan Singh memorial space, a practice UPA ended in 2013

In a late night statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said: “Today morning, the Government received a request to allocate space for a memorial for former Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh, from the Congress Party President. Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, HM Shri Amit Shah communicated to Congress President Shri 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.”

The Congress wanted Singh’s cremation at a place where a memorial could be built in his honour.

Incidentally, it was the UPA government headed by Singh that had blocked demands for separate memorials. In 2013, the UPA Cabinet decided to set up a common memorial ground – the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal at Raj Ghat – in view of paucity of space.

On Friday morning, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and conveyed his party’s desire. He also followed it up with a letter to the PM. Separately, All India Congress Committee general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K C Venugopal broached the topic with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, which the party released late evening, Kharge referred to the telephonic conversation with him during which he made the request to “hold Dr. Manmohan Singh’s last rites… at his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for memorial of the great son of India.” That, he said, would be in “keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former Prime Ministers at the very place of their funerals.”

Recounting Singh’s “phenomenal” contributions and achievements and pointing out that he holds a “highly revered place in the psyche of the country and the people of this nation”, Kharge wrote: “I hope and trust that befitting the stature of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the… request to have the funeral of Dr. Manmohan Singh at a place where his memorial can be built, will be acceded.”

“Coming from a humble background and having experienced the pains and sufferings of the partition, it is through his sheer grit and determination that he rose to become one of the leading statesmen of the world,” he said.

By late evening, Congress leaders said the government has not acceded to the request and they are given to understand that the cremation will take place at the Nigambodh Ghat.

Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh said, “The people of our country are simply unable to understand why the Government 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. This is nothing but a deliberate insult to the first Sikh Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.”

His party colleagues also spoke out and so did the SAD, SP and AAP.

Lok Sabha MP and former Union Minister Manish Tewari said, “It is extremely unfortunate. If Late Dr Manmohan Singh’s family wanted it that way, then it is a different matter. Otherwise he should be cremated where the last rites of other former Prime Ministers have taken place. This great son of Punjab who was respected across the world for his erudition, knowledge and sagacity needs to be given a final send off befitting his stewardship of India for ten long years. That is the least that must be done to honour his memory.”

In a social media post, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said it was “shocking and unbelievable” and “condemnable in the extreme that Union Government has declined the request of Dr Manmohan Singh Ji’s family for performing the funeral and last rites of the highly distinguished leader at a place where an appropriate and historic memorial may be built to commemorate his unparalleled services to the nation.”

“This place should be Raj Ghat. This will be in keeping with the settled practice and tradition followed in the past. It is inexplicable why the government is showing such disrespect to the great leader who was the only member of the Sikh community to rise to become the Prime Minister. As of now, the cremation is slated to be performed at the common cremation ground at Nigambodh Ghat. I am unable to believe that the BJP government’s bias would go to such extremes in utter disregard of the towering global stature which Dr Manmohan Singh ji enjoyed and will always enjoy,” Badal said.

Arguing that his party, despite its political differences with the Congress, had always held Singh in the highest esteem, Badal asked Prime Minister Modi to intervene to “change this deplorable decision of the government”.

The Congress’s desire to have a separate resting place for Singh is notable as it is often accused of ignoring its stalwarts outside the Nehru-Gandhi family and playing down their contributions to the country. The Congress and the Gandhi family still carry the stigma of humiliating former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao after his death.

Given the fraught relations between Sonia Gandhi and Rao, the Congress shunned the former PM after he demitted office in 1996 following an eventful tenure that saw the unshackling of the Indian economy, the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) bribery scandal.

For years, the Congress refused to acknowledge Rao’s role in opening up the Indian economy, the biggest reform in India since Independence.

Rao was the first PM outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full term in office. And, he continues to be the only Congress PM who does not have a separate resting place in the Capital. His body was not even allowed inside the 24, Akbar Road headquarters of the AICC when he died in December 2004, with his cortege forced to park on the pavement outside the main gate.

Rao finally got a memorial in 2015, 10 years after his demise. The NDA government built a memorial ghat for Rao at Ekta Sthal Samadhi Complex on the grounds that he was entitled to state honours as a former PM. The BJP government awarded the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour, to Rao earlier this year.

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