SANJAY Gandhi has a memorial in Delhi, while former prime minister V P Singh does not have one “anywhere in India”. As the Congress and BJP squabble over the final resting place for ex-PM Manmohan Singh, who passed away on December 26, who gets a memorial – and where – is often a factor of who holds power at the time. While the Congress has claimed “an insult to India’s first Sikh PM” in the fact that the cremation of Singh was held at the open-to-the public Nigambodh Ghat, the Narendra Modi government has said that plans are in motion to honour the architect of India’s liberalisation with a fitting memorial soon. As per sources, first a trust would be formed for the purpose, with members likely from both the Congress and government. In consultation with the government, the trust would identify space for the memorial. Sources said Singh’s memorial may come up near the Sanjay Gandhi memorial, next to Jawaharlal Nehru's, at Shanti Van. Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, a memorial complex for departed leaders, and Kisan Ghat, which holds former PM Charan Singh’s memorial, are being talked about as other options. Raj Ghat, the memorial for Mahatma Gandhi located next to the Yamuna river in Delhi, provided the template for resting places for other leaders. A black marble slab marks the spot where Gandhi was cremated in January 1948. When Nehru died, in May 1964, a space adjoining Raj Ghat was earmarked for his last rites and his memorial named Shanti Van. The second PM, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had a short stint from 1964 to 1966, got a memorial called Vijay Ghat near Raj Ghat too. Gulzarilal Nanda, who served as interim PM after the unexpected deaths of both Nehru and Shastri, has a memorial in Ahmedabad (where he died) called Abhay Ghat. Nanda, who last held public office in 1971, died 27 years later, in January 1998. There was a flux in politics at the Centre at the time, with the I K Gujral-led government having fallen and general elections ahead. Ahmedabad also holds the memorial of Morarji Desai, called Narayan Ghat. Desai, who belonged to Gujarat, headed the first non-Congress government at the Centre. The Janata Party leader replaced Indira Gandhi as PM in the elections held after Emergency and held the post from 1977 to 1979. He died in 1995. A Congress government led by P V Narasimha Rao was in power at the Centre at the time. Charan Singh, who replaced Desai as PM with the support of the Congress, but served only from July 1979 to January 1980, also got a cremation spot near the Raj Ghat when he died in May 1987. The place was designated as Kisan Ghat. At the time of his death, there was a Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government in power. When Sanjay Gandhi died in June 1980, as the plane he was piloting crashed in Delhi, his last rites were conducted within the Smriti Van memorial premises. There is a samadhi of Sanjay at the spot. The government at the Centre was led by mother Indira Gandhi. When Indira herself was killed in October 1984, with Rajiv picking up the mantle of PM, her last rites were conducted at a designated spot near Raj Ghat, which was named Shakti Sthal. After Rajiv’s assassination in a suicide blast in May 1991, his last rites were conducted in space next to Raj Ghat too, with the memorial to him named Veer Bhumi. Campaigning for the general elections was on at the time, and the polls brought the Congress to power. However, Narasimha Rao, the first non-Gandhi to lead a full Congress government at the Centre (1991-96), did not get a memorial in Delhi. He died in 2004 under a Congress government led by Manmohan Singh, and his body was famously not allowed to be kept at the party office for people to pay their last respects. He was eventually cremated in Hyderabad (Rao belonged to then united Andhra Pradesh). Finally, in 2015, when Narendra Modi came to power, his government built a memorial for Rao called Gyan Bhumi. Two years earlier, citing paucity of space given that about 245 acres of land in the heart of Delhi was already taken up by memorials, the Centre had taken a call that there would not be separate memorials for departed leaders. The government, led by Manmohan Singh, decided to set up ‘Rashtriya Smriti Sthal’ as a common complex along the Yamuna river, for future memorials. The proposal for a common complex was first discussed in 2000 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed a BJP government, but was finally cleared by the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. It is within this Rashtriya Smriti Sthal complex that the memorial dedicated to Rao stands. When Chandra Shekhar, who headed a minority government from November 1990 to June 1991, backed by the Congress, died in July 2007, he was cremated within the Ekta Sthal complex. In 2015, his memorial was renamed by the Modi government in 2015 as Jannayak Sthal. I K Gujral, who served as PM from April 1997 to March 1998 of the United Front government, has a memorial within the Smriti Sthal complex dedicated to him. Gujral, who had been a Congressman for a long time, died in November 2012. Vajpayee, the first BJP leader to become PM – he held the post thrice, but only completed one full term, 1999 to 2004 – also got a memorial in Delhi on his death in August 2018. The Modi government gave Vajpayee a grand sendoff, with his memorial named Sadaiva Atal. Apart from former PMs, there are memorials in Delhi (most of them around the Raj Ghat memorial complex) for former Presidents Giani Zail Singh (Ekta Sthal), Shankar Dayal Sharma (Karma Bhumi), R Venkarataraman; former Vice-President Krishan Kant; ex-Deputy Prime Ministers Jagjivan Ram (Samata Sthal) and Devi Lal (Sangharsh Sthal); former President K R Narayanan (Uday Bhumi); and ex-PM Shastri’s wife Lalita (next to his memorial at Vijay Ghat). India’s first President Rajendra Prasad has a memorial in Patna (he belonged to Bihar) called Mahaprayan Ghat. Dr B R Ambedkar’s memorial called Chaitya Bhoomi is located next to Dadar Chowpatty in Mumbai. The names for the memorials reflect what the departed leaders best signified, a former Union minister of the Congress said. So if Raj Ghat indicated Gandhi’s place as the forger of the Indian nation, Nehru’s Shanti Van was meant to signify peace-seeking as his goal as leader, Shastri’s Vijay Ghat symbolises his 1965 victory against Pakistan, and Indira’s Shakti Sthal parallels projection of her as a “strong leader”. Rajiv’s Veer Bhumi underlines his assassination in a terror attack, while Charan Singh’s status as a farmer leader is signified by Kisan Ghat. Rao’s ‘Gyan Sthal’ memorial signifies his qualifications as a scholar and a polyglot. On whether there was any memorial for V P Singh, anywhere, his son Ajeya told The Indian Express, “No memorial whatsoever.” He had also said this in Chennai last year, when a statue of his was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. V P Singh, whose short term as PM (1989-90) marked an irreversible churn of politics in India with the implementation of the Mandal Commission, remains the only deceased former prime minister to not have a memorial.
