Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday described the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro as one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century.
“India mourns the loss of a great friend,” Modi said.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the Government & people of Cuba on the sad demise of Fidel Castro. May his soul rest in peace,” he tweeted.
“We stand in support with the Cuban government and the people in this tragic hour.”
President Pranab Mukherjee offered “heartfelt condolences.”
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said the revolutionary icon will forever be remembered for his contribution to the Non-Aligned Movement.
Describing his death as a loss not limited to Cuba or a particular ideology, Gandhi said that Castro led the oppressed and the striving from the front and stood up to every attempt at stifling the voice of freedom.
“His contribution to the Non-Aligned Movement and his unflinching support for India’s cause on various fora will always remain deeply etched in the minds and hearts of the Indian people,” she said in a statement.
Senior Kerala Communist leaders termed the former Cuban president a shining beacon of the Communist movement across the world.
Former Kerala minister and senior CPI leader Binoy Viswam said his meeting with the great revolutionary in 1984 in Havana was still fresh in his memory.
Castro will be remembered in India for his close association with the Nehru-Gandhi family and especially his “sisterly” ties with former prime minister Indira Gandhi – which he sealed with a bear hug during the Non-Aligned Summit in New Delhi in 1983.
At the summit, Castro, as host of the previous summit in Havana in 1979, he was happy and proud to pass the conference gavel to his “sister” Indira Gandhi.
Both then rose from behind the podium, watched by several hundred delegates.
As both came to face each other, Gandhi expectantly extended her arm to receive the big wooden gavel.
But Castro did not reciprocate.
Gandhi, a trifle taken aback, extended her arm a second time, but Castro again failed to respond but kept smiling mysteriously.
As a slightly embarrassed Gandhi proffered her hand a trifle hesitatingly a third time, Castro pulled a surprised Gandhi to him and gave her a giant bear hug in full view of the hall, before parting with the gavel.
A photo taken in 1976 shows Castro and then prime minister Indira Gandhi during a meeting in the United States.
