New Delhi [India]: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale announced on Saturday that the Home Ministry is working on plans to dedicate a memorial to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away on December 26.
“… We have lost a great person. The Home Ministry is deciding on dedicating a memorial to him, and we all pay our respects to him from our party,” Athawale told media. He further acknowledged a BJP statement that Singh was not given the respect he deserved during his tenure, saying, “The BJP’s statement that he was not respected as much as he deserved is factual.”
Following a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah conveyed to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Singh’s family that space for a memorial would be allocated soon.
However, political tensions arose as BJP National Spokesperson CR Kesavan accused Congress of attempting to “politicize” Singh’s demise.
“The Congress is unsuccessfully trying to politicize the demise of Dr. Manmohan Singh. They should remember the deadly 1984 riots in which our Sikh brothers and sisters were massacred under their watch,” Kesavan said, further criticizing Congress’s historical treatment of leaders like Narasimha Rao.
“It was PM Narendra Modi in 2015 who ensured and honored Narasimha Rao with a memorial in Delhi and conferred the Bharat Ratna to him,” he added.
Congress had initially demanded that Singh’s cremation take place at a site where a memorial could later be established. The government clarified that land for a memorial would be allocated shortly but not at the cremation site.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh criticized the decision, calling it a “deliberate insult” to Singh’s legacy.
“This is nothing but a deliberate insult to the first Sikh Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh,” Ramesh posted on X, emphasizing Singh’s global stature and decades of service to the nation.
Singh was accorded a state funeral with full military honors at Nigam Bodh Ghat, a public cremation ground in north Delhi, on Saturday.