?Students hold candles and portraits of former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Agartala, Tripura, India, on Aug. 17, 2018. Former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away Thursday evening, will be cremated on Friday with full state honors. (Xinhua)?
by Pankaj Yadav
NEW DELHI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Former Indian Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away Thursday evening, will be cremated on Friday with full state honors.
He will be cremated at "Rashtriya Smriti Sthal," a space allocated to cremate tall Indian leaders, including premiers and former premiers.
A nationwide seven-day mourning is being observed as a mark of respect to the departed soul. All offices of the central government across the country will be closed on Friday afternoon.
The national flag will fly at half-mast throughout the country and Indian missions abroad, said a statement issued by the Indian government.
The spot where Vajpayee will be cremated is located between "Vijay Ghat" and "Shanti Van," the memorials of former premiers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Jawaharlal Nehru, respectively.
Thousands of people have been paying their last respects to the departed leader at his official residence "6A Krishna Menon Marg" in Delhi since Friday morning.
His mortal remains will be shifted to the head office of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to which Vajpayee belonged, at "6 Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg" near central Delhi, where elaborate arrangements have been made to let people pay their homage.
As a mark of respect to the departed leader, all schools, educational institutions and offices of Delhi state government have been shut. Similarly, many other states have announced a mourning holiday.
As many as 25 main roads have been shut for vehicular traffic, to ensure a smooth last journey of Vajpayee, first from his residence to the party office and then to the cremation site.
The funeral procession will begin from the BJP headquarters at around 1 p.m. local time and end at "Rashtriya Smriti Sthal" where the last rites are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. local time.
Vajpayee served as the Indian prime minister thrice - first in 1996 for only 13 days, and then for two consecutive terms between March 1998 to May 2004, out of which the first tenure lasted for 13 months followed by another term of full five years.
During his active political life, he was always seen as a great orator and had friends cutting across party lines.
Besides his political life, Vajpayee also served as a journalist after completing his education. He also served as India's external affairs minister from March 1977 to July 1979.
Vajpayee became a member of India's parliament for the first time in 1957. Thereafter, he was elected to the parliament many times, to both houses of Indian parliament - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
He had the distinction of being the only parliamentarian in the country to have been elected from four different states - northern state Uttar Pradesh, western state Gujarat, central state Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Vajpayee visited China in 2003 as India's prime minister.
