TIL Desk/National/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, 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 (long live Atal Bihari) reverberated in the air and a light drizzle fell.
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. Vajpayee’s ashes will be immersed in rivers in all the districts in Uttar Pradesh, the state government said.The UP government put out a list of 75 districts and the small and big rivers picked for the immersion of the ashes of the Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
