Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pays his last respects to P V Narasimha Rao during his cremation at Rock Garden in Hyderabad on Saturday. — PTI
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Hyderabad, December 25
The mortal remains of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao were consigned to flames here today amid the chanting of mantras in the presence of a galaxy of national leaders.
An eventful life passed into history as the funeral pyre was lit by P.V. Ranga Rao, the second son of the departed leader, on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake in the presence of family members and relatives, including his five daughters.
The 83-year-old Rao, credited with pioneering economic reforms in the country, passed away in Delhi on Thursday following prolonged illness.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accompanied by his wife Ms Gursharan Kaur, Union Cabinet Ministers P. Chidambaram, S. Jaipal Reddy, P. Lakshmi, Renuka Chowdary, Andhra Pradesh Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde, Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, Karnataka and Andhra Chief Ministers Dharam Singh and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, TDP chief and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and a host of Congress Party senior leaders including Motilal Vora and Ashok Gehlot, were among hundreds of VIPs who bid the final farewell to the Chanakya of contemporary India.
The state funeral with ceremonial military honours, including a 21-gun salute, was held at Rock Garden, a 3-acre site specially chosen by the government for a future memorial, as hundreds of political leaders, government officials, colleagues and admirers thronged the cremation site to witness the last rites. The ceremony, which began at 1 pm, lasted for an hour.
Earlier, the flag-draped coffin of PV was carried in a flower-decked hearse from Jubilee Hall, where it lay in state in a procession to the Necklace Road.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, senior ministers Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh were some of the prominent leaders who did not attend the ceremony.
The cremation at the site, a public park, was cleared earlier by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which rejected a House Motion moved by environmentalists opposing the funeral on the banks of the lake. The state government declared that a memorial park would be built at the spot as a fitting tribute to the son of the soil.
