Manmohan Singh memorial row
New Delhi: Sharmistha Mukherjee, the daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, has criticized the Congress party for failing to convene a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting following her father’s passing.
Nevertheless, she expressed her support for the Congress’s appeal to the central government for a memorial site dedicated to Manmohan Singh, who died at the age of 92 on Thursday. In a post on X, Sharmistha Mukherjee remarked that the Congress did not take the initiative to call a CWC meeting after Pranab Mukherjee’s death in 2020, asserting that such an oversight was inappropriate for a former president.
“When my father passed away, the Congress did not even take the time to convene a CWC meeting for a condolence session. A senior leader informed me that this was not customary for presidents. This is completely unfounded, as I later discovered from my father’s diaries that a CWC meeting was indeed called upon the death of K.R. Narayanan, and the condolence message was drafted by my father himself,” she stated in her post.
Her remarks followed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s call for a designated site for the funeral and memorial of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sharmistha also endorsed the proposal for a memorial for Dr. Singh, stating, “That said, establishing a memorial for Dr. Singh is an excellent idea. He is deserving of it, as well as the Bharat Ratna, which my father, during his presidency, wished to bestow upon him; however, this did not materialize, possibly due to reasons that need not be elaborated.”
In a related development, the Congress party expressed that the inability to identify a location for Manmohan Singh’s cremation and memorial constituted a deliberate affront to the nation’s first Sikh prime minister. This issue was raised after the Home Ministry announced that Singh’s last rites would take place at Nigambodh Ghat in New Delhi at 11:45 AM on Saturday, with full state honors.
On Friday evening, the Union Home Ministry confirmed that arrangements would be made for a memorial dedicated to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and this information has been communicated to his family and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
In a late-night announcement titled “Clarifications Regarding the Memorial for Former Prime Minister Late Dr. Manmohan Singh,” the ministry indicated that a request had been made by the Congress president for the allocation of space for a memorial dedicated to Singh.
Following the Cabinet meeting, Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed Kharge and Manmohan Singh’s family that the government would provide the necessary space for the memorial.
Meanwhile, the home ministry noted that cremation and other formalities could proceed, as a Trust must be established and space allocated for it.
Singh, who led the Congress-led UPA government and is recognized for his contributions to economic reforms, passed away on Thursday at the age of 92.
He served as India’s prime minister for a decade from 2004 to 2014.
