Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other top leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday accused the BJP government of not allocating a place for cremation and memorial of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and called it an insult to the departed leader.
Attacking the government, Gandhi in a post on X wrote, “The present government has completely insulted Dr Manmohan Singh, the great son of Mother India and the first Prime Minister of the Sikh community, by conducting his last rites at Nigambodh Ghat today.”
Pointing out that Singh was the Prime Minister of India for a decade, the Leader of Opposition in the Lower House said during his tenure, the country became an economic superpower and his policies are still supporting the poor and backward classes of the country.
“Till date, respecting the dignity of all the former Prime Ministers, their last rites were performed at authorised sites so that every person could pay homage without any inconvenience. Dr Manmohan Singh deserves our highest respect and a memorial. The government should have shown respect to his great son of the country and his proud community,” he said.
Notably, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging that the cremation of the former Prime Minister take place at a location where a memorial could be built to honour his legacy.
Earlier in a post on X, Yadav said, “The tradition of respect should be followed in the context of the Samadhi of the former Prime Minister of the country. There is no need for any politics on this issue, nor should there be. Dr Manmohan Singh ji’s Samadhi should be built at Rajghat only.”
The SP chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister asserted that “BJP should not present an inappropriate example of its narrow mindedness. History will never forgive the BJP for its negative attitude.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Kejriwal said, “The last rites of former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh were performed at Nigambodh Ghat. Before this, the last rites of all the Prime Ministers of India were performed at Rajghat.”
“The BJP government could not even give 1,000 yards of land for the last rites and memorial of Dr Manmohan Singh, who came from the Sikh community and was famous all over the world and was the Prime Minister of India for 10 years,” the former Delhi chief minister said in a post on X.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh asserted that by denying space at Rajghat for Dr Singh’s funeral, the BJP has insulted the Sikh community.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Friday that the government has decided to allocate space for a memorial for former Prime Minister late Dr Manmohan Singh.
“Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah communicated to Congress President Kharge and the family of Late Dr Manmohan Singh that the Government will allocate space for the memorial,” the ministry has said.
It, however, added that the “cremation and other formalities can happen because a trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it.”