By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The body of Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister whose death sparked widespread grief at home and praise abroad, was cremated with full state honors on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi on Sunday .
The funeral was conducted in Sikh tradition as priests sang hymns after Singh’s body, draped in the Indian flag, was carried through the capital on a flower-bedecked carriage pulled by a ceremonial army truck.
The flag was removed and the body was covered with a saffron cloth before being placed on the pyre.
Since Singh died on Thursday at the age of 92, many have seized on his comment near the end of his 10-year reign that “history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media.”
He was referring to the perception of weak leadership when he headed a coalition government that faced numerous corruption allegations and was thrown out of office in the 2014 election, which his successor Narendra Modi won.
Modi, who called Singh one of the country’s “most outstanding leaders” after his death, attended the funeral along with President Droupadi Murmu and representatives of various countries. Modi’s government has decided to allocate land for Singh’s memorial.
Singh, considered the architect of India’s economic liberalization, had criticized Modi’s economic policies such as demonetization and the introduction of a goods and services tax.
Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accompanied Singh’s family in the truck after the procession from the party headquarters in New Delhi to the Nigambodh Ghat cremation site, where people along with party leaders and Congress members met to pay their last respects.
The leaders of the US, Canada, France, Sri Lanka, China and Pakistan, among others, expressed sadness over Singh’s death and highlighted his international contributions. (This story has been reworded in paragraph 1 to read “sparked”, not “sparked”).
