Prime Minister Modi paid his last respects to former President Pranab Mukherjee.
New Delhi:
Pranab Mukherjee’s funeral will take place today with full military honors. The former president, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died this Monday, weeks after his brain surgery. He was 84 years old.
The government and many states have announced an official seven-day duel.
Pranab Mukherjee’s body has been brought to his official home in Delhi, 10 Rajaji Marg, for the people to pay their last respects.
President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his residence and paid their last respects.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha President Om Birla, Defense Chief of Staff General Bipin Rawat, and the heads of the three services also paid tribute to the former president.
The Defense Ministry, in a statement last night, gave details of the wreath by dignitaries, politicians and others.
Due to the COVID-19 protocol, the body of the former president will be carried for the last rites in a hearse instead of the gun carriage. The funeral will take place at the Lodi Road crematorium.
In a statement, the Home Office said that out of respect, there would be state mourning across India from August 31 to September 6.
“During the period of state mourning, the national flag will fly at half mast on all buildings in India, where it is flown regularly, and there will be no official entertainment,” the statement said.
The veteran, widely respected across the spectrum and described as the greatest statesman in Indian politics, served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance in various governments.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Modi posted a photo of him touching Pranab Mukherjee’s feet in reverence. “He has left an indelible mark on our nation’s development trajectory,” Prime Minister Modi said in a series of tweets.
“A quintessential scholar, an imposing statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sectors of society,” he wrote.
The thirteenth president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civil honor, in August last year.
“My passion has been serving the people of India,” said Pranab Mukherjee, widely known as “Pranab-Da,” in a speech that sums up 50 years of public life when he stepped down as president in 2017.
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