Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Many thousands including top political leaders, captains of industry, celebs and commoners bid a tearful farewell to the legendary business giant and a genteel Parsi, Ratan Naval Tata at his final journey on October 10.
Battling with age-related health issues at the Breach Candy Hospital since Monday, Tata (86) breathed his last shortly before midnight on Wednesday, plunging the world of industry and corporates into gloom.
His mortal remains were taken to the NCPA Lawns this morning to enable the people to pay their last respects before the funeral at the Worli Crematorium in the evening.
Since morning, thousands of people and dignitaries, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Central and state ministers, MPs, legislators and leaders of all political parties turned up to pay their respects.
India’s top industrialist tycoons including Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita Ambani and their family members, representatives or heads of leading business families like the Piramals, Godrejs, Hindujas, Mahindras, Bajajs, Birlas and more attended and paid homage to the departed star of the country’s business galaxy.
Other notables included Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, wife Rashmi, son Aditya, Arvind Sawant, MP, Congress’ former Chief Ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, state chief Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Satej Bunty Patil.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray and his family, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar and others also visited or paid glowing tributes to Tata’s memory and his contributions to the country.
After the teeming crowds at Nariman Point, this afternoon Tata’s glass-topped coffin draped in the Tricolour was mounted in a closed flower-bedecked van which sped off to the Prayer Hall and Crematorium at Worli, some 12 km away.
His head, covered in a typical red Parsi prayer cap and body in a traditional community attire, was visible from the coffin at the NCPA Lawns and the Prayer Hall in Worli, as Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Parsi religious men chanted prayers and reverently stood beside.
