HYDERABAD, 26 December 2004 — Former Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who died of a heart attack in New Delhi this week, was cremated with full state honors yesterday afternoon.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his senior Cabinet colleagues and leaders of the ruling Congress party of which Rao was a member, attended the ceremony in Hyderabad, capital of Rao’s home state Andhra Pradesh.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who paved the way for Rao to become prime minister after the death of her husband and former Premier Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, was not present at the ceremony. She paid her respects to Rao at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Friday.
Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, opposition leader L.K. Advani, several central ministers including Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, P. Chidambaram, S. Jaipal Reddy and Prithviraj Chavan, Andhra Pradesh Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde, Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, chief ministers Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra, Dharam Singh of Karnataka and N.D. Tiwari of Uttaranchal were among the others who paid their last respects.
Rao’s eldest son Dr. P.V. Ranga Rao lit his father’s funeral pyre at 1.50 p.m. as sobbing family members, relatives and a galaxy of leaders watched in silence. Slogans of “Narasimha Rao Amar Hain” rent the air, as Indian Army soldiers sounded the Last Post and presented a 21-gun salute.
The flower-bedecked gun carriage carrying the body with Rao’s portrait placed in front reached the funeral site. Earlier, the funeral procession started from Jubilee Hall, where the body was kept for public veneration, at around noon even as hundreds of mourners paid their last respects to the departed leader. The procession took some 90 minutes to cover a distance of six kilometers.
Indian Army soldiers led the cortege with a military band playing a mournful tune. Hundreds of mourners, including Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy followed the gun carriage on foot.
The mourners also included villagers of Vangara, Rao’s native village in Karimnagar district.
Among the mourners was Veera Mallaiah, who said he had studied with Rao since class three. Though unable to walk properly, the 80-year-old man undertook the arduous journey here to pay his last respects to his old friend.
Rao, who died on Thursday aged 83, had a history of heart ailments, and was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Dec. 8 after suffering a heart attack. The federal government declared a seven-day national mourning to mark his death. No official functions would be held during this period and the national flag flies at half-mast.
Several countries including the United States, China, Pakistan and Singapore condoled the death of Rao who was prime minister between 1991 and 1996, a period during which India embarked on path-breaking economic reforms.
Rao, in office from 1991 to 1996, was an unexpected holder of the top job. Brought from political retirement to head the Congress Party after Rajiv Gandhi’s 1991 assassination, Rao was swept into the prime minister’s office on a wave of sympathy.
The VIP list at the funeral represented an honor of which Rao was deprived in his last year, having been ostracized by the Congress party after he led it to a disastrous 1996 election defeat.
Rao was the first politician from Andhra Pradesh to become India’s prime minister. He was the first Congress leader outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete five years in office as prime minister.
