Pilot given a tearful farewell

While Pilot’s final journey was a sombre event, unseemly scenes were witnessed at his residence — where his body lay after being brought by special plane from Jaipur late last night — as his emotional supporters demanded that the government immediately allot a site on the Yamuna bank for his cremation and samadhi. “He was a great kisan

leader and deserves a resting place alongside other eminent leaders on the banks of the Yamuna,” they echoed in chorus.

In fact, a section of his supporters, mostly from the Gujjar community (to which he belonged) reportedly even got in touch with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee on the issue. Led by party MP Avatar Singh Bhadana (who is also a Gujjar), the supporters tried to gherao Vajpayee when he reached Pilot’s residence to pay his last respects, seeking his intervention on the issue.

At the Nigambodh ghat where the last rites were performed, the entire Congress top brass led by party chief Sonia Gandhi was in attendance. Also present were Pilot’s wife Rama Pilot, his daughter Sarika and son-in-law Vishal apart from other close family members and friends from the Air Force with whom he had once served.

Several thousand of his supporters descended on the cremation grounds to bid farewell to “Pilot sahab” or “hamara Pilot,” as they fondly remembered him. They shouted themselves hoarse with slogans such as “Neta bara mahan tha, Bharat ka kisan tha” and “Neta nahin Fakir tha, Bharat ka Taqdeer tha.” Former Prime Ministers Chandrashekhar and H D Deve Gowda also attended the funeral.

Pilot’s body, draped in the Congress flag, was brought to the cremation grounds in a long procession which wound its way from AICC headquarters at 24-Akbar Road, where it was taken to enable partymen to pay their last respects. Hundreds of people, including party workers, Seva Dal volunteers and admirers lined up on both sides of the route to bid adieu as the flower-bedecked truck carrying his body crawled.

Earlier, it took Pilot’s grief-stricken wife, Rama, to soothe the heightened tempers of his followers, who rejected the idea of cremating their leader at Nigambodh ghat and demanded that his body be taken to his native village, Baidpur for the last rites, if the government was not willing to honour their wishes. As emotions ran high, bizarre suggestions followed, including one of cremating him at his residence so that the house itself would become a memorial. The truck to ferry his mortal remains to the cremation grounds was sent packing from the residence as frenzied supporters refused to relent.

Pilot’s wife, herself an MLA, then addressed the supporters, pleading with them not to politicise the issue. “I appreciate your feelings and sentiments. But there should be no attempt to make a political issue by pressing for such demand,” she said in voice choked with emotion. The agitated supporters melted and everything then went off peacefully.

A resolution adopted by the special Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting today to pay homage to Pilot, described him as a “promising and an upcoming leader of the next generation…he was bold, clear in mind and always gave expression to his thoughts keeping uppermost the interest of the nation.” The meeting of the CWC, of which Pilot himself was a member, was chaired by Sonia.

Earlier, President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Vajpayee, several of his cabinet colleagues, Congress leaders, including members of the CWC and party workers went to Pilot’s residence to pay homage to the departed leader. Some of his admirers bowed in silence before his mortal remains, many others broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.