Kolkata: Senior Congress leader and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday slammed the West Bengal government for not according full state honours to the funeral of former Chief Minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray who died here on November 6.
"There has been a lapse in our part. It is a convention practiced everywhere in the country to accord full state honours to the funeral of former Chief Ministers", Mukherjee said at the condolence meeting held in honour of
Ray.
He said, "what was done is not right".
Ray`s body was not carried in a gun carriage which is accorded in a funeral with full state honours.
Mukherjee praised Ray as being a great statesman and administrator.
As Chief Minister, Ray had successfully suppressed the Naxalite uprising in Bengal using the bullet and also for restoring peace in Punjab when he was the governor during 1985 to 1989, the minister said.
The meeting, organised by WB Pradesh Congress, was also attended by former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Shyamal Sen and other Congress leaders.
PTI
