Prime Minister’s memorials

Prime Minister’s memorials

Sub: History

Sec: MSC

Context: – The Congress accused the Centre of insulting the former PM by carrying out his last rites at Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could later serve as his memorial.

Are memorials Mandated?

While guidelines exist for State funerals, there is no specific rule or government order regarding allocation of space for memorials for former PMs.

Convention Followed

No common place for Memorial is designated for Prime ministers as different PMs have different places for memorial. Eg. When Nehru died, in May 1964, a space adjoining Raj Ghat was earmarked for his last rites and his memorial named Shanti Van whereas the memorial of Morarji Desai, called Narayan Ghat is at Ahmedabad. Also, V P Singh does not even have an official memorial.

• Mahatma Gandhi Raj Ghat (Delhi)
• Jawaharlal Nehru – Shanti Van (Delhi)
• Lal Bahadur Shastri – Vijay Ghat (Delhi)
• Gulzarilal Nanda – Abhay Ghat (Ahmedabad)
• Indira Gandhi – Shakti Sthal (Delhi)
• Rajiv Gandhi – Vir Bhumi (Delhi)
• Charan Singh – Kisan Ghat (Delhi)
• Morarji Desai – Narayan Ghat (Ahmedabad)
• Chandra Shekhar – Jannayak Sthal (Delhi)
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee – Sadaiva Atal (Delhi)
• V. Narasimha Rao – Gyan Bhumi (Delhi)

Apart from former PMs, there are memorials in Delhi (most of them around the Raj Ghat memorial complex) for former Presidents Giani Zail Singh (Ekta Sthal), Shankar Dayal Sharma (Karma Bhumi), R Venkarataraman; former Vice-President Krishan Kant; ex-Deputy Prime Ministers Jagjivan Ram (Samata Sthal) and Devi Lal (Sangharsh Sthal); former President K R Narayanan (Uday Bhumi); and ex-PM Shastri’s wife Lalita (next to his memorial at Vijay Ghat).

India’s first President Rajendra Prasad has a memorial in Patna (he belonged to Bihar) called Mahaprayan Ghat. Dr B R Ambedkar’s memorial called Chaitya Bhoomi is located next to Dadar Chowpatty in Mumbai.