On Friday night, after the Congress alleged that its request for space for a memorial to Singh had not been honoured, the government said it had agreed to the request
Hours after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames, the Congress and the government traded fresh charges Saturday over a site for his memorial in the Capital.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and his sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the Congress attack, saying the government had “insulted” Singh by getting his funeral done at the Nigambodh Ghat cremation ground.
Union Minister and BJP president J P Nadda struck back, accusing the Congress of spreading false information despite the fact that the government had shortlisted a space for Singh’s memorial and had also informed his family about it.
While Nadda stopped short of revealing the site of the proposed memorial, The Indian Express has learnt that a space near Kisan Ghat, which marks the cremation site of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, is among the locations being considered for Singh’s memorial.
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Earlier, the Congress, while urging the government to allocate a place for a memorial, had even suggested that space could be carved out of the Shakti Sthal area where Indira Gandhi’s memorial is located – both Kisan Ghat and Shakti Sthal are not far from Rajghat, the resting place of Mahatma Gandhi.
On Friday night, after the Congress alleged that its request for space for a memorial to Singh had not been honoured, the government said it had agreed to the request.
In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said Union Home Minister Amit Shah had informed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Singh’s family that the government would allocate space for the memorial. “In the meanwhile, cremation and other formalities can happen because a trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it,” the Ministry said.
The Congress, in fact, wanted Singh’s cremation at a place where a memorial could be built in his honour.
