NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not allowed a memorial at Raj Ghat and was cremated in Nigambodh Ghat public crematorium instead. This has now sparked a controversy. Congress and opposition parties came forward demanding that a suitable memorial be built for the late leader. The central government has clarified that they will find a suitable place for the memorial.
The Congress wanted Manmohan to be laid to rest at Raj Ghat, close to where Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were laid to rest.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to arrange for Manmohan Singh to be cremated at Raj Ghat. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said it was an insult to India’s first Sikh Prime Minister to go through final rites in a public crematorium. The central government hit back saying that Home Minister Amit Shah had informed Kharge that a place would be found to build the memorial.
It was also clarified that since there was a delay in finding a place and forming a trust, it was decided that the funeral rites should take place quickly. The BJP accused the Congress of playing dirty politics at a very wrong time.
Meanwhile, Congress was put in dock after former president Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmila alleged the party didn’t raise its voice for a memorial for her father in Delhi. She said the Congress Working Committee did not even condole the death. She even shared BJP leader CR Kesavan's X post of Congress humiliating former prime minister Narasimha Rao during his death.