New Delhi: True to her words, Geetika Lidder held the folded tricolour close to her chest and fought back her tears to bid her husband, Brigadier Lakhwinder Singh Lidder, a 'smiling send-off' as she termed the farewell.
"I am a soldier's wife. "I should bid him farewell with a smile. I won't cry," she had said. Brigadier Lidder, a top aide of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, was among the 13 killed in the chopper crash at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris district on December 8.
The country bid a fitting farewell to General Rawat, his wife Madhulika and Brigadier Lidder on Friday.
Brigadier Lidder was taken to the pyre at 9.30 am. His teenage daughter Aashna Lidder lit the pyre. She too displayed immeasurable composure like her mother.
Meanwhile, the bodies of General Rawat and Madhulika were kept in state at his official residence from 11 am to 1.30 pm. Senior political leaders, high ranking officials, senior military officers, representatives of Sri Lankan, Nepalese and Bhutanese military paid their last respects to the General and his wife. Hundreds of people bid him farewell, raising the slogan, "Rawat amar rahe" (Long live Rawat!).
The bodies, escorted by Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, were taken out of the residence at 2.14 pm. The funeral procession reached Brar Square at 3.30 pm. The General and his wife were accorded a funeral with full military honours.
The bodies of General Rawat and Madhulika were placed on the same pyre lit by their daughters Krithika and Tharini, in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and others.
Their ashes were taken to Haridwar on Saturday for immersion in the Ganges.
