Assam: Singer Zubeen Garg's last rites performed with full state honours
Guwahati (PTI): Singer Zubeen Garg's body was cremated with full state honours in the sylvan surroundings of Kamarkuchi on the outskirts of Assam's Guwahati on Tuesday amid chanting of Vedic hymns as thousands of mourners gathered to bid farewell to the popular crooner.
His sister Palme Borthakur and music composer Rahul Gautam, a protege of the singer, lit the pyre, amid gun salutes.
They went around the pyre seven times as priests guided them, and all present at the site, most with moist eyes, stood up to pay their last respect to the singer who mesmerised people with his more than 38,000 songs over three decades.
Zubeen's wife, Garima Saikia Garg, was sitting on the side of the platform where his last rites were performed, and was seen sobbing all through the rituals as the singer's friend and Union Minister Pabitra Margherita consoled her.
Garg's 85-year-old ailing father, Mohini Mohan Borthakur, was sitting at a distance surrounded by family members.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, also a Zubeen fan, was seen standing near the platform where the pyre was lit.
As the smoke from the flames flared up, slogans like 'Zubeen, Zubeen' and 'Jai Zubeen da' reverberated in the air, and people were heard singing his song 'Mayabini Ratir buku'.
This continued all through the rituals held in an emotionally charged atmosphere.
After the tributes were paid to the popular singer, the Assam Police gave him the gun salute and sounded the bugle.
Earlier, the mortal remains of Garg were taken to a platform and placed on the pyre amid chanting of Vedic hymns and blowing of conch shells.
The family performed certain Vedic rituals while Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju and the chief minister placed wood on the pyre.
A branch of the sandalwood tree, which Zubeen had planted on his birthday in 2017, was placed on the pyre.
Earlier, the popular singer's body was brought on Sunday and kept at Arjun Bhogeswar Baruah Sports Complex for fans to pay homage.
After being brought to Kamarkuchi, his body was placed on a podium, next to the platform where his last rites were performed.
The funeral pyre, constructed on the platform, was covered in a white canopy and decorated with flowers all around it.
A team of Assam Police personnel were the pallbearers of the casket carrying Zubeen's mortal remains.
A large number of people gathered around the cremation site since Monday night, and the entire area reverberated with slogans like 'Long Live Zubeen', 'Jai Zubeen da'.
People were heard humming his song 'Mayabini Ratir buku', which the singer had once said should be sung at his funeral.
Members of the family, including his wife Garima, paid tributes to the singer at the cremation site.
Sonowal, Rijiju and Margherita, along with Sarma, assembly speaker Biswajit Daimary and several cabinet ministers and senior government officials, laid floral wreaths on the singer's coffin.
Sonowal, Margherita, the chief minister and leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia went down on their knees to pay tributes to the singer.
Representatives of the Arunachal Pradesh government, Assam Sahitya Sabha (ASS), various students' unions, Hatimura Karbi Samaj, Artists Forum, Zubeen Garg Fan Club and others also paid their last respects to Garg.
Meanwhile, the second post-mortem examination of Garg's body was conducted at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital on Tuesday morning.
The first autopsy was conducted in Singapore, where he died on September 19 while swimming in the sea.
Earlier in the day, Garg's body, placed inside the cold glass coffin, draped in the traditional Assamese 'gamosa', was taken in a flower-bedecked ambulance from the sports complex to the cremation site.
A huge black and white portrait of the singer was placed in front of the vehicle.
Zubeen's last journey passed through Sarusajai, Beltola, Khanapara and Jorabat to reach Kamarkuchi. The singer's family, close relatives and a few friends followed him in separate vehicles.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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