HVK Archives: Gujral invokes Gandhi to cut through funeral red tape
Gujral invokes Gandhi to cut through funeral red tape - The Telegraph
K. P. Nayar
()
11 September 1997
Title: Gujral invokes Gandhi to cut through funeral red tape
Author: K. P. Nayar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 11, 1997
The Prime Minister, Mr I.K. Gujral, took the rare step on Saturday of
overturning an earlier Cabinet decision to ensure Mother Teresa was given a
state funeral.
Mr Gujral called a meeting of the council of ministers within hours of
being informed of Mother's death.
But at that meeting, to the Prime Minister's surprise and annoyance, he was
told about legal and procedural difficulties in arranging a state funeral
for Mother Teresa. These difficulties arose out of the recorded minutes of
an earlier Cabinet meeting, where detailed nothings had been made about the
modalities for the Mother's funeral.
The notings were a sequel to a Cabinet discussion some years ago when
Mother Teresa was seriously ill. After discussing the unfortunate
eventuality of her death, the Cabinet concluded that a state funeral would
be inadvisable.
The Cabinet appears to have reached that conclusion after ministers
expressed the view that the pomp and ceremonies associated with a state
funeral were alien to the kind of life that Mother lived and preached.
The Cabinet also observed that the views of the Catholic church should be
taken into account before any final decision was taken on the Mother's
funeral.
Senior bureaucrats told the Prime Minister on Saturday that these notings
on Cabinet papers had the force of a Cabinet decision.
It was then that Mr Gujral, impatient over bureaucratic procedure and
anxious to ensure that due respect is paid to Mother Teresa's memory,
decided to overturn the earlier decision.
The Cabinet then- formally decided the Mother would be given a state
funeral. But reaching such a decision was easier said than done.
Bureaucrats, steeped in rules and regulations, pointed out that state
funerals in India are reserved for Prime Ministers. They pointed out there
was a time when even former Presidents were not accorded state funerals.
How would the government cope with the protocol and other requirements of
giving this honour to a private citizen, they asked.
At this point, Mr Gujral reminded the Cabinet that Gandhiji had been given
a state funeral in 1948, though the Father of the Nation held no office of
state and asked the bureaucrats to refer to papers relating to Gandhiji's
funeral.
The officials expressed doubts on whether they would be able to trace these
documents. Mr Gujral then lost his temper and said it was regrettable that
papers relating to Gandhiji's death were not readily available.
The bureaucratic quagmire surrounding the proposal for a state funeral for
Mother Teresa then prompted a Cabinet minister to remark that if the
question of India's Independence in 1947 had been left to bureaucrats, they
would have spurned the idea on the ground that there was no precedent in
their files for the country's freedom.
Having successfully negotiated the minefield of procedural problems, Mr
Gujral is, however, leaving nothing to chance regarding the arrangements
here and in Calcutta for next Saturday.
Yesterday, he presided over an extended meeting, where all arrangements
were minutely scrutinised. At this meeting, Mr Gujral once again took the
bureaucracy by surprise by pointing out that the arrangements they were
making left the poor people of Calcutta out of the funeral ceremonies.
"What about the poor people, for whom Mother Teresa worked all her life?"
the Prime Minister asked. They should have a place in all the ceremonies.
It was then that plans were chalked out to include the handicapped, the
homeless, lepers and orphans in the funeral procession.
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