Manmohan Singh’s final journey on December 28, cremation at Nigambodh Ghat

Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to receive state funeral with military honors; memorial site to be designated.

Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will be accorded a state funeral with full military honours at the Nigambodh Ghat, a public cremation ground in north Delhi, on Saturday (December 27, 2024), an order from the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday.

The development came hours after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to have the funeral at a site where a memorial of Dr. Singh can be built.

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Congress general secretaries K. C. Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too had taken up the issue of a memorial with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, said an informed source.

The source told The Hindu that government officials have conveyed it to Mr. Kharge as well as to the former Prime Minister’s family that a memorial for Dr. Singh would be earmarked in the next few days, but it will not be at the site of his funeral. In fact, it was the Congress-led UPA government that had decided to have a common memorial ground — Rashtriya Smriti Sthal — near Raj Ghat because of shortage of land next to the Yamuna in central Delhi.

The government’s response came after Mr. Kharge had followed up his telephonic conversations with a letter to the Prime Minister to press for a funeral site where a memorial can be built.

“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 said in his two-page letter.