Stream of VIPs pay tribute

Apr 26, 2011 |

Age Correspondent

A stream of VIPs, including cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and over a lakh of devotees paid their last respects to the Baba at Prashanti Nilayam on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, BJP leader Mr L.K. Advani, and several other VVIPs will be arriving on Tuesday to offer tribute to the departed spiritual guru.
Condoling the death of Satya Sai Baba, young AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Sai Baba was a beacon of light and taught the religion of love to all.
The young leader also said that the great teacher’s life “presents us all with an example of love and service for all, especially for the youth”. The mortal remains of Baba will be kept for public darshan at Prashanti Nilayam till 6 pm on Tuesday and his burial rites will held on Wednesday morning. AP governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy are expected to attend the last rites.
Sachin broke down while paying his last respects to the Baba. Accompanied by wife Anjali and friend V. Chamundeshwarnath, Sac-hin sat beside Baba’s body for around half-an-hour in the morning and offered prayers.
An ardent devotee of the Baba, Sachin was seen wiping tears with a handkerchief handed by his wife. The cricketer, who turned 38 on Sunday, did not celebrate his birthday due to Baba’s death.
He flew down from Hyderabad this morning along with his wife after leading his team, Mumbai Indians, to victory in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, TVS company chairman Mr V. Srinivas also paid tributes to the Baba.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accompanied by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will arrive here on Tuesday. Public darshan of the mortal remains of Baba will last till 6 pm on Tuesday,” said AP major industries minister Dr J. Geeta Reddy.
“I seek an apology from the people for any inconvenience. We are trying our best to ensure smooth darshan and for basic amenities to devotees,” she added.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/70029" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-d02a75b33b9023f77255faf9aaf8d5be" value="form-d02a75b33b9023f77255faf9aaf8d5be" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80515223" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>