Rajnath Singh to lead Indian team at funeral of Fidel Castro

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will lead an Indian delegation at the funeral of Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. The delegation will include Congress leader Anand Sharma, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary D Raja, BJP MP Ramen Deka and SP lawmaker Javed Ali Khan.

The Indian delegation will leave for Havana on Tuesday and is expected to return on Thursday evening, official sources said.

Earlier in the day, CPI’s D Raja said, both at the Business Advisory Committee meeting and in the Rajya Sabha, that the House may be adjourned after passing a resolution as a mark of respect for the deceased leader.

When he raised the issue at Business Advisory Committee meeting, Chairman Hamid Ansari said only government could bring such a resolution. In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan read out a condolence for Castro and led the House in observing silence for a few minutes.

In his obituary on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called Fidel Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century and a ‘good friend’ of India. In 2013, Vice-President Hamid Ansari was the last top Indian leader to visit Cuba and, earlier, in 2006 Manmohan Singh had visited Havana during the NAM Summit.

Castro died on November 25 at the age 90 after defying the United States during a half-century rule and surviving the eclipse of global communism. Castro had visited India during the 1983 NAM Summit.