The Hindu : Front Page : Nation bids adieu to Narasimha Rao

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 26, 2004

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Front Page

Nation bids adieu to Narasimha Rao

By Our Special Correspondent

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offers floral tributes at the funeral of former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao in Hyderabad on Saturday. -- P.V. Sivakumar.

HYDERABAD, DEC. 25. The mortal remains of the former Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao, were consigned to the flames with full military honours amid the chanting of vedic hymns on the banks of the Hussain Sagar Lake here today. His eldest son, P. V. Ranga Rao, lit the pyre.

A large number of mourners bid a tearful and emotional farewell to their "Telugu bidda" (son of the soil), the first one to make it to the office of Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, came in a special plane. Others present were the former Prime Minister, H. D. Deve Gowda, the BJP president, L.K. Advani, the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram.

As Mr. Ranga Rao lit the pyre, he broke down and was helped by his brothers, Rajeswara Rao and Prabhakar Rao.

Fourteen men of the Gorkha Regiment fired three volleys each in the air while the buglers sounded the last post.

Amid the recitation of the Bhagavad Gita, mourners trickled in for a last glimpse of the departed leader.

Scores of people from Rao's native village, Vangara in Karimnagar district, came to bid farewell to their dora (endearing term for an elder). The funeral rites were performed by the family priests from Hanamkonda.

After the pyre was lit, Dr. Singh and his wife consoled members of the bereaved family.

Earlier, the funeral procession started from Jubilee Hall where the body was kept in state for mourners to pay their last respects.

The body was shifted to a flower-bedecked gun carriage for the final journey.

The cortege reached the cremation site at 1 p.m. shortly before the arrival of the Prime Minister. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, accompanied the cortege for a short distance.

The Governor, Sushilkumar Shinde, and his Maharashtra counterpart, S.M. Krishna, and Chief Ministers Vilas Rao Deshmukh (Maharashtra), Dharam Singh (Karnataka) and N.D. Tiwari (Uttaranchal), joined Dr. Reddy in paying homage to the departed leader as did the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers, N. Chandrababu Naidu, N. Janardhana Reddy and N. Bhaskara Rao.

Others who attended the funeral were Motilal Vora and Ashok Gehlot, Congress leaders who represented the party president, Sonia Gandhi, M. Venkaiah Naidu, former BJP president, K.V. Krishna Rao, former Army Chief, and G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, former Chief Election Commissioner. Several Central and State Ministers were also present.

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