Emotions flow as State offers respect to its creator

Emotion, respect and devotion flew everywhere on the streets of Jharkhand when urns carrying ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of the tallest BJP leaders, were taken to several rivers for immersion on Thursday.

Main event took place in Ranchi where the ashes had already arrived on Wednesday evening and were kept for final homage at BJP State headquarters for public viewing till Thursday afternoon. Following that the urn was taken to Swarnrekha River at Namkum in form of a huge procession where besides BJP leaders and workers people from different sections of society participated with outpouring enthusiasm.

Journey for about eight kms stretch started from the BJP office took little over three hours to reach the designated place. Chief Minister Raghubar Das and several Cabinet colleagues joined the procession at Shishu Mandir at Chutia and walked behind truck-mounted urn for about a km.

During the entire course of journey hundreds of people joined in and offered their last tribute to the iconic leader of the nation. Chants like ‘Atal ji amar rahen’, ‘Atal Bihari Jindabad’ kept raising throughout the procession.

Swarnrekha’s bank at Namkum was fully prepared and decorated to receive the ashes for performing immersion that was conducted by the Chief Minister. Some brief rituals were performed with the help of Brahmins chanting the Vedic hymns.  

Accompanied by Ministers CP Singh, Neelkant Singh Munda and Neera Yadav besides MLAs Ram Kumar Pahan and Jeetu Charan Ram, Raghubar Das emptied the urn filled with ashes into the flowing water of the river along with flowers and chants from the people. Jharkhand Khadi Board Chairman Sanjay Seth was also present besides State BJP general secretary Deepak Prakash.

Similar programmes were also conducted at banks of Koyal River at Daltonganj, Subarnrekha at Barhagora, Damodar at Ramgarh and Kharkai at Jamshedpur where different Ministers and senior leaders were present. Large number of common people took part in the procession.

The urn had arrived in Ranchi after being handed over to State BJP president Laxman Gilua in Delhi on Wednesday.

Politicians of all the parties had paid their homage and recalled Vajpayee’s broader democratic vision and his association with Jharkhand in the presence of Governor Droupadi Murmu and other dignitaries at Carnival Hall on Wednesday. Following that the ashes were distributed to be immersed at all the important rivers of the State covering all the five Divisions on Thursday.