The government will give space for a memorial of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and this has been communicated to his family and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Friday night.
In a late-night release titled "Facts of the matter regarding a memorial for Former Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh," the Ministry said that the government received a request from the Congress Chief to allocate space for a memorial for Dr Singh.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah conveyed this decision immediately after the Cabinet meeting to Kharge and the family of Dr Manmohan Singh.
Meanwhile, cremation and other formalities can happen because a Trust has to be formed and space allocated to it, the MHA said.
Dr Singh, who headed the Congress-led UPA government and is credited with economic reforms, passed away on Thursday at the age of 92.
He was India's Prime Minister for 10 years between 2004 and 2014.
The Congress on Friday said that not finding a place for the cremation and memorial of Dr Singh was a deliberate insult to the country's first Sikh Prime Minister.
The Congress raised the issue after the Union Home Ministry said Dr Singh's last rites would be held at New Delhi's Nigambodh Ghat at 11.45 a.m. on Saturday with full state honours.
Earlier on Friday, a political controversy cropped up after Congress Chief Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting a separate memorial for Dr Manmohan Singh. The demand has raised questions and sparked debate, particularly given the historical context of Congress-led UPA governments rejecting similar demands in the past.
The core of the issue is that Congress has sought a dedicated memorial site for Dr Singh, whereas earlier Congress-led governments had already established a common memorial, Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, for the cremation of VVIPs. This site, between the memorials of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, has been used for the last rites of the former prime minister since its inauguration in 2013. Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also cremated there in 2018.
The Congress party is now demanding a separate memorial for Dr Singh, when it had opposed individual memorials for former Prime Ministers under the UPA government. Political commentators and critics have pointed out this contradiction, with many questioning the rationale behind this new approach. Social media users have also been vocal in highlighting the inconsistency in the party's position.
The proposal by Kharge is written in a letter to the Prime Minister Modi, who he advised should let Dr Singh's memorial be made at the site of conducting his last rites. Now, this has come in as a political controversy that says the Congress's move appears to differ from what the UPA government adopted when it was in the government.
But the government has decided that Nigambodh Ghat will be the final resting place of the last rites of Dr Manmohan Singh, and this decision seems to have fallen into the cold shoulders of the Congress. The former Prime Minister is to be cremated at Nigambodh Ghat in the national capital at noon on Saturday.
"Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister, passed away at 9:51 p.m. on December 26, 2024, at AIIMS Hospital, New Delhi.". It has been decided by the Government that a State funeral will be accorded to Dr Manmohan Singh. The funeral will take place at 11:45 a.m. on December 28, 2024, at Nigambodh Ghat, New Delhi. The Ministry of Defence is requested to make arrangements for the State funeral with full military honours," the Ministry of Home Affairs stated.
Reports suggest that at the Congress Working Committee meeting, MP Priyanka Gandhi suggested that at least part of either Veer Bhumi or Shakti Sthal would be set aside for carrying out Dr Singh's last rites and simultaneously acting as a memorial. But after that, it was communicated late and, even upon strong objection by the party, the government had asserted that Nigambodh Ghat was final and had made no offer on creating a memorial.
The Congress leadership, including Kharge, keeps asserting that only a memorial be undertaken which does justice to the legacy of Dr Singh.
As the political storm brews over the memorial debate, observers believe that this new demand by the Congress represents a significant shift from its previous policy on memorials for former leaders.
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