Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, slammed Congress amid the demands for space allocation for the memorial of Dr Manmohan Singh. Mukherjee said that the Congress didn't even bother to call the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting to express condolences after the demise of Pranab Mukherjee.
However, she backed the demand for the memorial and termed it a good idea. She further said that Pranab Mukherjee wanted to confer Bharat Ratna on Dr Singh but that didn't happen due to reasons "which don't need to be spelt out." While recalling Congress' approach after the demise of her father, she said that a senior leader told her that CWC is not convinced of Presidents but she later found out that it was called after the passing of KR Narayanan.
In a post on X, Sharmistha said, "When Baba passed away, Congress didn't even bother to call CWC for a condolence meeting. A senior leader told me it’s not done for Presidents. That's utter rubbish as I learned later from Baba’s diaries that on KR Narayanan’s death, CWC was called & condolence msg was drafted by Baba only.”
Sharmistha backed memorial demand
However, she has backed the Congress party's demand for space allocation. Quoting her above post, she further added, "Having said that, a memorial for Dr Singh is a great idea. He deserves it & also Bharat Ratna which Baba as President wanted 2 confer on him, but that didn’t happen perhaps due to reasons which don’t need to be spelt out."
What did Centre say?
On demands of the Congress party, the Union Home Ministry in a release stated that the Central Government will allocate space for a memorial for the former prime minister. In a late-night release titled 'Facts of the matter regarding memorial for Former Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh' on Friday, the ministry said that the Centre had received a request to allocate space for a memorial for Singh, from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
In the release, it was stated that while the space is being allocated, the cremation and other formalities can take place because a trust has to be formed in this regard. "Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, HM Shri Amit Shah communicated to Congress President Shri Kharge and the family of Late Dr Manmohan Singh that the Government will allocate space for the memorial. In the meanwhile cremation and other formalities can happen because a trust has to be formed and space has to be allocated to it," the statement read.
