Country pays homage to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; last rites to be held at Delhi's Nigambodh Ghat

NEW DELHI: The sky overcast with fog and snow. Rains all day. The atmosphere in Delhi was gloomy yesterday. Manmohan Singh's mortal remains lying in the living room of bungalow number 3 on Motilal Nehru Road. He had settled here after he resigned as Prime Minister in 2014. He had always received his guests with a spontaneous smile.

Hundreds of people thronged yesterday to catch a glimpse of Dr Manmohan Singh. The mortal remains will be taken to the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road, half a kilometre from the residence, at 8 am today. Public homage till 9.30am. The Union Home Ministry said the cremation will take place at 11.45 am with official honours at Nigambodh Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna River behind the Red Fort. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has written to the Prime Minister seeking permission to build a memorial for Manmohan Singh.

The body was shifted from AIIMS to Motilal Road residence on Thursday night itself. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, who took off from Belgavi in Karnataka to reach Delhi at 2 in the morning, immediately reached the home of the beloved leader. After paying their respects to Manmohan Singh, they consoled his relatives. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J.P. Nadda had also reached the hospital at night.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda paid tributes to Manmohan Singh at his residence earlier yesterday. President Draupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar also reached the residence. Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, Aam Aadmi Party Convener Arvind Kejriwal and others also came. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Priyanka, KC Venugopal, Ramesh Chennithala, VD Satheesan, Jairam Ramesh, MK Raghavan, Adoor Prakash and others were at Manmohan's residence since yesterday morning.

Half day holiday for central institutions today

The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister at 11 am yesterday passed a resolution condoling the demise of Manmohan Singh. National mourning has been declared for seven days till January 1. On those days, the national flag will be flown at half-mast, including at foreign embassies. Today is a half-day holiday for all central government offices and central public sector institutions.