Ashes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee immersed in Barak

Special Correspondent

Silchar: As declared earlier and according to the plan, the ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were brought in an urn by Ranjit Dutta, minister of handloom and textile by the regular flight from Guwahati here. At the airport, Parimal Suklabaidya, minister of fisheries, excise and forest, along with Kabindra Purkayastha, former union minister and Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, S Lakshmanan, IAS, received the urn. From the airport, the ashes were brought in a solemnly decorated truck by a rally of BJP leaders and workers to the Police Parade Ground.

The urn was placed at a raised platform to enable the admirers of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as well as various sections of people, socio-cultural and political groups to pay their homage to the great departed leader, statesman and a colossus personality. It was from here that the urn in a carriage was taken to Sadarghat where the ashes were immersed in the holy water of Barak River by Parimal Suklabaidya and witnessed by thousands of people standing on the bank. Also present on the occasion were the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, DIG, BJP leaders and workers of the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi.

It is relevant to mention here that the vehicle carrying the urn from the airport stopped at Shalganga, Udharbond, Madhuramukh and Rangpur for allowing people to pay their last respect. It is also significant that an all religious prayer was held to pray to the Almighty so that the soul of the departed leader rests in peace. When Jawahar Lal Nehru died, his ashes were immersed by his sons, Rajiv and Sanjay, at the holy confluence of Sangam at Allahabad, where rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet. His ashes unlike that of Vajpayee were scattered from an aircraft from this sky across the country which provoked adverse reactions from some of the opposition leaders, particularly the great Samajwadi Party MP of the time, Ram Manohar Lohia.