K C Venugopal AICC general secretary (organisation): Monumental insult to Dr Singh… dignity and protocol befitting his stature were lacking at funeral

Can you elaborate?

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi early yesterday morning and expressed our desire that Singh should be given a special funeral place. He told Kharge that he will convey it to the Home Minister (Amit Shah). Kharge then rang up the Home Minister… Then Defence Minister Rajnath Singh came to Singh’s residence to pay his respects. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and me… we conveyed the same to Singh. He told us he is going to attend the Cabinet meeting… he will convey our desire… but finally what happened… by the end of the day, we saw an order that his cremation would be at the Nigambodh Ghat. We were ready to let the Government carve out a space for SIngh’s memorial out of the Shakti Sthal (memorial to Indira Gandhi)… or Veer Bhumi (memorial of Rajiv Gandhi). It was informally conveyed to the Government also.

What happened at the funeral that you say has agitated the Congress?

Everyone who was there at the funeral could see it. Many could not reach there on time. Everything was done in a shoddy manner. We knew it because Nigambodh Ghat has space constraints. That’s why we told the Government that Singh’s funeral should be held at a special place… We know that as a former PM, he would be given a state funeral… it would all be organised by the Defence Ministry… but what about the party he represented… about his family… nobody from the government had contacted the party or the family… our chief ministers could not find a proper place at his funeral… the family could get only two-three seats… many of them were standing all through… it was a monumental insult to Dr Manmohan Singh. The overall dignity and protocol befitting his stature was completely lacking.

The Government Friday night said that it will allocate a space for the memorial. Has the government shared any further details…?

Not till now. At least, till the funeral… the family was also not informed. We wanted the cremation befitting Singh’s stature. We did not want to create any controversy… Now BJP president J P Nadda is saying we created a controversy. What can I say… they played all the politics. They indulged in cheap political tricks in the last two days. Only Doordarshan was allowed at the cremation site… and its focus was the PM and ministers… we don’t even want to say all this…

But it was the UPA government 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 Rajghat.

Then how was a place given for A B Vajpayee. Didn’t they bypass that decision of the Cabinet? His funeral took place in a separate space… We didn’t say anything then but we are now forced to talk about their hypocrisy. The shoddy arrangements at Singh’s cremation were deeply insulting. The Government was hell bent on diminishing his stature for their petty political reasons.