NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh’s demise led to his Sikh identity being exaggerated, with the Congress, AAP and SAD conflating it in their demand for a memorial to the former prime minister, reports .
“The government has insulted a global icon and first Prime Minister of the Sikh community, Dr Manmohan Singh, by cremating him at Nigambodh Ghat,” Opposition Leader LS Rahul Gandhi wrote in rites at one of the largest public cremations. land on the banks of the Yamuna.
SAD’s Sukhbir Singh Badal said the government’s decision to cremate Singh at Nigambodh Ghat, which is used by ordinary citizens, “showed disrespect to the great leader” who was the only member of the Sikh community to he became prime minister.
“Manmohan Singh, a global icon and the only Sikh prime minister of India, was denied even 1,000 square yards of land for his cremation and memorial at Rajghat. Almost all former prime ministers were cremated there, but the government of the BJP rejected this basic courtesy towards Singh,” the AAP national said. said convener Arvind Kejriwal, while asking the BJP to clarify its stand.
The government said Singh’s family had been informed that their request to allocate a site for the memorial had been accepted despite the Manmohan Singh government’s 2013 decision not to further facilitate the construction of memorials.