Thousands line streets for Vajpayee’s funeral
NEW DELHI: Thousands of mourners in white funereal dress escorted the coffin of three-time prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee through the capital yesterday, showering his body in rose petals before his cremation.
Vajpayee, a poet and spellbinding orator respected across the political divide in India, died on Thursday after a long period of declining health. He was 93.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who described Vajpayee's passing as “a personal and irreplaceable loss”, lead the procession to the leafy cremation grounds near the sacred Yamuna River.
Senior cadres from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party that Vajpayee nurtured into power, mourned alongside foreign dignitaries, including Bhutan’s king and Afghanistan’s former leader Hamid Karzai.
He was placed on a sandalwood pyre set alight by his foster daughter, as family poured sacred grains on the burning logs, and incantations were recited by Hindu priests.
Mourners had lined the streets for hours to catch a glimpse as Vajpayee's coffin, wrapped in the Indian tricolour flag, made its final sombre journey.
Despite not making a public appearance in years, Vajpayee continued to inspire devotion in many parts of the country, especially in key bellwether Hinduheartland states.
“He was a Hindu by heart, but a leader of all by his deeds,” said Kumar Krishnen, a mourner on a streetside here.
“It was India's poor who lived in his heart and who he worked for,” said another, Rajkumar Tripathi.
“He was a poet and a writer, but all his literature was based on the common man and his aspirations. I salute this immense personality with all my heart.”
Vajpayee was seen as a more moderate face of Hindu nationalism during his time in office, although he struggled to hold back hardline members of the BJP.
His often conciliatory tone, and poetic jibes directed at opponents, won admiration on both sides of the political divide.