NEW
DELHI - India on Friday declared five days of national mourning for
former South African president Nelson Mandela, who was hailed as a "true
Gandhian" and a "great friend" by the country's leaders.
The Indian flag will be flown at half mast across the country for
five days and "there will be no official entertainment", a government
statement said after a special meeting of the cabinet in New Delhi.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country regarded Mandela as a "true Gandhian in spirit and ideal".
"In a world marked by division, his was an example of working for
reconciliation and harmony and we are not likely to see another of his
kind for a long time to come," Singh told a conference in televised
remarks.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee called Mandela "a statesman, world leader and icon of inspiration of humanity".
"He was a great friend of India and his contribution for
strengthening the close ties between our two countries will be always
remembered," he said.
Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi had his political baptism
in South Africa after arriving there in 1893, with his experience of
racism in the country shaping his future political activism back home.
India was also the first country to sever trade relations with the apartheid regime in Pretoria back in the 1940s.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said the world had "lost a beam of light" with Mandela's death.
"Mandela could have become president for life but (he) wanted to be
an agent of change and that is what he wanted to be remembered for," he
told India's CNN-IBN news network.
Mandela died late Thursday at his Johannesburg home after a long battle against lung infection.
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