Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 28: A row has erupted between the Centre and the Congress over the allotment of space for the construction of memorial of the former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s memorial with Grand Old Party demanding that the memorial be built at the same place where his mortal remains were cremated.
The row erupted after the Congress expressed strong reservation over the government’s decision to cremate the body at the Nigambodh Ghat, a public cremation ground, in the national capital where a memorial would not be possible. The Congress condemned the allocation of the Nigambodh Ghat for the final rituals instead of a location where a memorial could be built in his honour and alleged that the BJP government was “deliberately insulting” the first Sikh prime minister of the country in not designating a place for his funeral and memorial.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about exploring the possibility of building a memorial for Dr Singh at the same site where the last rites would be held. “Apropos our telephonic conversation this morning, wherein I made a request to hold Dr Manmohan Singh’s last rites, which will take place tomorrow i.e. 28th December 2024, at his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for a memorial of the great son of India. This is in keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former prime ministers at the very place of their funerals,” Mr Kharge wrote in a letter on Friday.
However, BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan hit back at Congress, calling the party’s behaviour “ironic.” “It is indeed ironic that a Congress President is writing to PM Narendra Modi ji about traditions and the funeral place becoming the sacrosanct venue for a memorial. One should remind Kharge ji how the Congress-led UPA government never built a memorial in Delhi for former PM Narasimha Rao ji, who passed away in 2004,” he said.
The Centre said it has already decided to set up a memorial for Singh and a suitable place would be found soon. The Government has decided to allocate space for a memorial for Dr Singh, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.
According to the MHA, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, immediately after the Cabinet meeting, communicated to Mr Kharge that the Government will allocate space for the memorial. “Today morning, Government received a request to allocate space for a memorial for former Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh, from the Congress Party President,” the MHA statement read.
“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. In the meanwhile cremation and other formalities can happen because a trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it,” it added.
Mr Kharge in his letter to the government on Friday said, “I am writing this in the context of the sad demise of Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India. Apropos our telephonic conversation this morning, wherein I requested to hold Dr Manmohan Singh’s last rites, which will take place tomorrow i.e. 28th December 2024, at his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for the memorial of the great son of India. This is in keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former Prime Ministers at the very place of their funerals,” Mr Kharge wrote in his letter.
The Congress President emphasized that Dr Manmohan Singh holds a highly revered place in the psyche of the country and the people of this nation. “While his contributions and achievements are phenomenal, I would like to dwell here on some of his very significant accomplishments. His erudition on economic and fiscal matters comes from his vast experience as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India and various other capacities in several organizations,” Mr Kharge said.
“The respect and regard that the world leaders had for Dr Manmohan Singh bears testimony to this fact. His wise counsel, leadership and contribution in mitigating the global economic financial crisis is well acknowledged. As I recall, President Obama during his tenure as President of the US mentioned Dr Singh and remarked that “Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him,” he added.
Mr Kharge recalled Dr Singh’s role as Finance Minister during a grave economic crisis in India, saying “It was Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister, who took India out of the crisis and also led the country towards economic prosperity and stability. The nation today reaps the benefits of the robust economic foundations he built.”
Mr Kharge further said that a memorial would be a fitting tribute to a leader who rose from humble beginnings to become a statesman of immense stature. “In view of the foregoing, I hope and trust that befitting the stature of Dr Manmohan Singh, the above request to have the funeral of Dr Manmohan Singh at a place where his memorial can be built will be acceded to,” Kharge concluded.
But the BJP said the Congress should stop playing dirty politics on the death of Dr Singh. “Congress should recall how they treated former PM Narasimha Rao Ji after his death. The daughter of Shri Pranab Mukherjee also has tweeted how shabbily her father, a former President, was treated by the Congress,” a party statement read.
Sharmistha Mukherjee, the daughter of former President late Pranab Mukherjee, criticised Mr Kharge over the party’s demand for a separate memorial for the former Prime Minister. In a statement on X, she claimed that when her father and the former Indian President died in August 2020, the Congress leadership did not even bother to convene a condolence meeting by the Congress Working Committee (CWC). According to her, a senior leader of the Congress told her that memorials are not held for Indian Presidents.
She even accused the Congress leadership of misleading her on this issue during that time. According to her, a senior leader of the Congress told her that it is not for Indian Presidents.
Terming this logic by the Congress leader whom she referred to as “utter rubbish,” she also claimed that she learnt from her father’s diaries that on the demise of another former Indian President KR Narayanan, a CWC meeting was called and the condolence message was drafted by none other than Pranab Mukherjee.
Ms Mukherjee referred to a post by BJP’s CR Kesavan, who highlighted how Congress had disregarded other statesmen from the party just because they were not members of the “Gandhi” family. On this issue, a reference had been drawn to a chapter in the book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ penned by Dr Singh’s media advisor from 2004 to 2009 and the former editor-in-chief of Financial Express Dr Sanjay Baru, where it had been mentioned how the Congress-led UPA government never built a memorial in Delhi for former Prime Minister late PV Narasimha Rao, who passed away in 2004.
In the book, it was also mentioned that Congress never built a memorial for Mr Rao despite being in power from 2004 to 2014. Dr Baru in his book had also claimed that Congress did not even want Mr Rao’s cremation to happen in New Delhi but rather in his native place of Hyderabad.
The government has also brought to the public knowledge a decision taken by the union cabinet led by Mr Singh during the UPA-2 rule in 2013. The cabinet had decided to have a common place as a memorial when the official press release noted, “The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the construction of a ‘Rashtriya Smriti’ at the Samadhis Complex near Ekta Sthal in New Delhi, to establish a place to perform last rites of departed national leaders namely Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers, former Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers and such other leaders as decided by the Cabinet.”
It added, “In the past, separate memorials for departed national leaders were created near Rajghat which covered a large space. In view of Cabinet decision taken in the year 2000 that “Henceforth Government shall not develop any Samadhi for departed leaders” and the paucity of land at the Samadhis Complex area, ‘Rashtriya Smriti’ is being developed to perform last rites of departed national leaders. The Smriti area will provide space for last rites of departed national leaders in future, besides space for a public gathering.”
The first memorial in the premises was given to the late Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao in 2015 after the Narendra Modi Government came to power. Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also cremated at the Smriti Area and his memorial was called Sadaiv Atal.
It is also learned through sources that during the CWC meeting members from the Gandhi family proposed that Manmohan Singh’s funeral could be carried out around the memorial of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi and that Dr Manmohan Singh’s wife Gurcharan Kaur had suggested that the memorial be in the same place that the funeral.