New Delhi: The cremation of George Fernandes will be performed here on Thursday and his ashes will be buried at the Prithviraj Road cemetery the day after, the former defence minister’s wife Leila Kabir said Wednesday. Mourners continued to stream in at his residence — Shanti Niwas — in the city’s upscale Panchsheel Park, a day after his death, to offer condolences to the bereaved family.
“There will be a prayer ceremony at our residence tomorrow at 11 am where people can come and pay their respects before his final journey. And, as planned the cremation is to be held at 3 pm at the Lodhi electric crematorium,” Kabir told PTI. “The ashes will then be buried the next day at the Prithviraj Road Christian Cemetery,” she said.
The colonial-era cemetery is located in the heart of the city in Lutyens’ Delhi. Fernandes’ body has been preserved in a casket after embalming as his son, Sean, is yet to arrive in Delhi from the US. “Sean is travelling and his flight is expected to land in Delhi at around 2 AM. We are all waiting for him,” Fernandes’ younger brother Michael Fernandes said.
George Fernandes, a lifelong socialist despite his political adventurism that included Cabinet posts in two ideologically opposite governments where he ousted Coca-Cola in 1977 and oversaw the Kargil war in 1999, died Tuesday at his residence after prolonged illness. He was 88. A number of leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajanth Singh, BJP president Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, had visited the bereaved family at their residence on Tuesday to pay their respects.
Several leaders, veteran politicians and his admirers, from Mangaluru to Muzaffarpur converged at the residence on Wednesday as well to pay tribute to the departed leader. A pall of gloom continued to hang over his residence, while police security personnel kept vigil outside.
