Manmohan Singh's memorial: Centre agrees to allocate space

The Union government has agreed to allocate space for a memorial of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away late on December 26 at the age of 92. The decision has been communicated to Singh's family and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

In a late-night release titled "Facts of the matter regarding memorial for Former Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh", the home ministry said it had received the request to allocate space for a memorial for Singh from Kharge, and that the decision was taken and communicated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah immediately after the Cabinet meeting.

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However, the cremation—with full State honours at 11.45am today—and other formalities will be held as scheduled because a Trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it for the memorial.

Row over Manmohan Singh's memorial

Singh, who was India's prime minister between 2004 and 2014, was hailed as the architect of India's economic reforms, especially during his stint as finance minister in the 1990s.

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Kharge had written to PM Modi urging the Centre to have Singh's cremation at a place where his memorial can be built, keeping with the tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former PMs at the place of their funerals.

The Congress on Friday said that not finding a location for the cremation and memorial of a person of such high stature was a “deliberate insult” to the country's first Sikh prime minister. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, too, expressed shock over the Centre not acceding to the request of Singh's family for cremation at a place where an "appropriate and historic memorial" may be built to commemorate his "unparalleled services to the nation".

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BJP, however, responded by saying that the Congress-led UPA government never built a memorial for former prime minister Narasimha Rao, who passed away in 2004. Party national spokesperson C.R. Kesavan also added that it was the Narendra Modi government which built the memorial and honoured him with a Bharat Ratna.