New Delhi: Bugles sounded the last post, uniformed soldiers gave a gun salute and silence fell over the crowd as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames on Friday evening, the sun setting on the life of a poet-politician who combined accommodative politics with graciousness.
Foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the pyre as cries of Atal Bihari Amar Rahe reverberated in the air and a light drizzle fell, piercing the sombre silence.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were among the thousands of people at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna, the BJP patriarch’s final resting place along the stretch which also houses the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Several foreign dignitaries, including Bhutanese king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and Pakistan’s Law Minister Ali Zafar were present as Vajpayee was cremated with full state honours.
Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of the national capital as Vajpayee’s cortege made its way from his home to the BJP headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and then to the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal.
Modi, who along with BJP president Amit Shah walked behind the gun carriage decorated with flowers for the entire route of nearly 3.5 kilometers, later said people came from all parts of India and from all sections of society to pay tributes to an extraordinary personality who made an extraordinary contribution to the nation. “India salutes you Atal Ji!” Modi tweeted.
The tricolour draping Vajpayee, who died on Thursday at the age of 93 following prolonged illness at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, was folded and handed over to his granddaughter Niharika.
It was a sea of white, with most mourners dressed in the colour of mourning to remember the man who wove together pragmatism and his vision for an inclusive India. Some could be seen wiping their tears.
The intensity of the moment and the heat led to some mourners fainting. Among them was Khush Chaturvedi. ) “I am not politically inclined but I wanted to meet (former president) Kalam and Vajpayee once. I couldn’t manage to meet them when they were alive, but I had to be here today,” the 27-year-old from Siwan in Bihar told PTI.
In the crowd were Ganeshan, 38, and Chennaiah Nadesan, 45, who had flown in from Tamil Nadu, who described Vajpayee as achcha politician, achcha parliamentarian, pure man in a mix of Hindi and English after paying his homage.
Aakash Kumar, 25, rode his scooter from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, about 70 km away. “I was probably in Class 3 or 4, when I heard one of his speeches and got drawn towards him. I really liked his poems,” Aakash said.
These were extraordinary scenes last seen when Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in May 1991 and his funeral procession was taken from Teen Murti Bhavan to the banks of the Yamuna, said old-timers. (PTI)
