The Union cabinet presided over by the prime minister condoled the death of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar on behalf of the nation to the breaved family and declared state mourning for seven days as a mark of respect to the departed leader.
Briefing newspersons after the meeting Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Priyaranjan Das Munshi said that former PM would be given full state funeral. "It will take place at 4 pm in New Delhi and his body would be cremated at the same place where the mortal remains of former presidents Giani Zail Singh, K R Narayanan and Shankar Dayal Sharma were consigned to flames in the Raj Ghat area," Munshi said.
He, however, refused to answer questions regarding the Supreme Court order that no more land would be acquired in Delhi for cremating VIPs. "I am here to tell you about details of the cabinet meeting," he said.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee paid glowing tributes to Chandra Shekhar and called him a fighter, but also a clever politician who stood by what he believed in. "He was a friend of friends but lived the life on his own terms. The glaring example of it is how he disobeyed his own leader during the emergency," he said in a tribute written in Hindi.
Vajpayee recalled how Chandra Shekhar used to refer to him as Gurudev. "I would miss him in public and as a personal friend. I pay my tributes to him," he wrote in a half-page note.
