The BJP-led Union Government has come under fire from opposition leaders for failing to provide an authorised site for performing the last rites of Congress veteran Manmohan Singh. Singh passed away on December 26 at the age of 92. His funeral took place three days later at Nigambodh Ghat in the national capital.Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi called it an “insult” to Singh and his community that the first Sikh prime minister was cremated at Nigambodh Ghat and not at an authorised burial site.The Aam Aadmi party pointed out that almost all former prime ministers were buried within the Rajghat complex but Manmohan Singh was denied this “basic courtesy.”The Centre had refused to immediately grant a burial site for Manmohan Singh despite a request from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.The government said that it will allocate the space for a memorial later.”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,” Kharge had written in a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting a burial site for Manmohan Singh.MHA later released a statement explaining that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had communicated to Kharge that the government will allocate space for the memorial.The Government of India had in 2000 resolved not to allow separate memorials for dignitaries near Rajghat given the scarcity of space as more than 240 acres of prime land in the city had been taken over to build separate samadhis of national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Zail Singh and Rajiv Gandhi.However, land for the common memorial site–Rashtriya Smriti Sthal—flanked by the Ring Road and Yamuna—was assigned 13 years later.
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