In Singapore, PM Modi just visited a hallowed place for Indians worldwide and inaugurated a special plaque there

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning visited a place in Singapore that is hallowed beyond reckoning for Indians worldwide and inaugurated a very special plaque.

The Prime Minister, who is in Singapore for the final leg of a five-day visit that also includes Indonesia and Malaysia, visited the waterfront Clifford Pier, where in 1948, less than a year after India won its Independence, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi's ashes were immersed.

As per newspaper reports from the time, after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, amongst those who wished to participate in the mourning was an Indian government official in Singapore named JA Thivy who requested to the Mahatma's son, Devadas Gandhi, on behalf of the Indian community there, to send his father's ashes to Singapore. At that time, Mahatma Gandhi's ashes had been sent to various parts of India, and an urn was also sent to Singapore, arriving on March 15, 1948. 

Almost 70 years later, the visiting Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, visited the spot with Singapore's former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and inaugurated a plaque that bears the Mahatma's image as well as a picture of his ashes being laid to rest.

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The Clifford Pier, as it was then, has changed. It is now part of a restaurant of the same name belonging to the Fullerton Bay Hotel, which is also mentioned in the plaque.