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Virbhadra cremated with full state honours
“Raja nahin fakir tha, Himachal ki taqdir tha (He was not a king but an ascetic, he was the fortune of Himachal)” slogans echoed loud in Rampur town, about 125km from Shimla, during former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s final journey from ancestral Padam Palace to the Jogni Bagh royal crematorium
“Raja nahin fakir tha, Himachal ki taqdir tha (He was not a king but an ascetic, he was the fortune of Himachal)” slogans echoed loud in Rampur town, about 125km from Shimla, during former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s final journey from ancestral Padam Palace to the Jogni Bagh royal crematorium.
The six-time chief minister was cremated with full state honours. His son Vikramaditya lit the pyre at around 4.30pm. People who had gathered in large numbers fondly remembered ‘Raja Sahib’ as a leader who stood by them through thick and thin.
Virbhadra, 87, had breathed his last at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, following a cardiopulmonary arrest on Thursday. Leaders from across political parties, including the national BJP president Jagat Parkash Nadda and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, paid tributes to the departed leader in Shimla on Friday. A large number of people thronged the national highway when Virbhadra’s mortal remains were being taken from Shimla to Rampur.
People from across the state had descended on Rampur to pay last respects to ‘Raja Sahib’ who left an indelible imprint on the state’s public life through his political achievements for nearly six decades.
“Dekho dekho kaun aaya, sher aaya, sher aaya… (Look who has come, the lion…” reverberated the crowd when the body was brought out of the palace as people could not hold back their emotions. Local folk bands accompanied the body to the cremation ground.
“He was a ‘living God’ for us, he worked for the downtrodden, he was full of magnanimity,” said Purno Devi, 65, who had come all the way from interior 15-Beesh area of Rampur. There was no room for vehicles on the highway as the massive surge of supporters from claimed every inch of the stretch up to the crematorium. No one talked of Covid-19 protocols as police personnel struggled as people jostled to get the last glimpse of their beloved leaders.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, along with some members of his cabinet, himself flew to Rampur to pay last tributes to the six-time chief minister. He was present at the Jogniwas cremation ground along the banks of the Sutlej river. Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Union ministers Anand Sharma, Pawan Bansal, Rajeev Shukla; HP education minister Suresh Bhardwaj, state Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore, AICC secretary and Congress in-charge for Himachal affairs Sanjay Dutt , leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, former Congress chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu were also in attendance.
Vikramaditya Singh lit the funeral pyre as a police contingent gave the guard of honour and gun salute to the former chief minister.
