GUWAHATI: Assam bade a tearful adieu to three-time former Chief Minister and Congress stalwart Tarun Gogoi whose last rites were performed with full state honours on Thursday.
The mortal remains were consigned to flames at the Nabagraha crematorium in Guwahati. Gogoi’s son and Lok Sabha member Gaurav lit the funeral pyre in the presence of his family members, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, several ministers, Congress leaders, top bureaucrats, police officers and others.
Earlier in the day, the mortal remains, placed on a flower-decked vehicle, were taken to a church, a namghar (prayer house), a mosque, and two temples in a procession.
A half-day state holiday was declared by the government on Thursday as a mark of respect for the departed leader. A three-day state mourning was declared when he passed away on Monday at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital in Guwahati due to multiple organ failure, caused by post-COVID-19 complications.
After the body was handed over to the family on Tuesday, it was kept at the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in the city where people came from far and wide and paid their last respects on Wednesday.
Gogoi was a six-time MP and four-time MLA. He had first donned the CM’s mantle in 2001 and held the position till mid-2016 when the Congress was ousted by a resurgent BJP.
He is credited with the taming insurgency in the state. When he had become the CM, bomb blasts by the militants were the order of the day. His government had made several outfits to sign ceasefire agreements. He is also credited with reviving the state’s economy which was precarious in 2001.
His simplicity, ever-sporting smile, village boy image, and the quality of tolerating criticism are what made him that rare politician and the darling of the masses.