Atal laid to rest
New Delhi: Bugles sounded the last post, uniformed soldiers gave a gun salute, and a hush descended over the crowd as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's mortal remains were consigned to the flames on Friday evening, the sun setting on the life of a poet-politician who combined accommodative politics with graciousness.
Foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the pyre as cries of "Atal Bihari Amar Rahe" rent the air and a light drizzle fell.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were among the thousands of people at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna, the BJP patriarch's final resting place along the stretch which also houses the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Several foreign dignitaries, including Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and Pakistan's Law Minister Ali Zafar were present as Vajpayee was cremated with full state honours.
The tricolour draping Vajpayee, who died on Thursday at the age of 93 following prolonged illness at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, was folded and handed over to his granddaughter Niharika.
It was a sea of white, with most mourners dressed in the colour of mourning to remember the man who wove together pragmatism and his vision for an inclusive India. Some could be seen fighting back the tears.
The intensity of the moment and the heat led to some mourners fainting.
Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of the national capital as Vajpayee's cortege made its way from his home to the BJP headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and then to the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal.
As the crowds surged forward, some running, some walking, the prime minister and BJP president Amit Shah were among those who walked behind the flower-bedecked gun carriage.
There were people everywhere, covering the roads along the route from the BJP headquarters to the Smriti Sthal from side to side, with security personnel maintaining strict vigil to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
These were extraordinary scenes last seen when Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in May 1991, and his funeral procession was taken from Teen Murti Bhavan to the banks of the Yamuna, recalled, old-timers.
Seen as a moderate face of BJP, Vajpayee first became prime minister in 1996, leading a shaky coalition whose members were suspicious of the BJP's right-wing politics. It lasted for 13 days and collapsed after losing a vote of no-confidence.
His second stint as prime minister was in 1998 when the National Democratic Alliance again came to power, but that lasted for just 13 months.
Finally, the NDA with Vajpayee as PM returned to power in 1999 and was voted out in 2004.
