New Delhi: Bugles sounded the last post, uniformed soldiers clicked their heels and a sombre silence fell over the crowd as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames this evening, the sun setting on the life of a poet-politician who combined accommodating politics with graciousness.
Foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the pyre as cries of ‘Atal Bihari Amar Rahe’ reverberated.
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.
Several foreign dignitaries, including the king of Bhutan and Bangladesh’s foreign minister, were present.
The former prime minister was accorded a State funeral with thousands of people joining his last journey.