Rajnath to lead Indian team at Castro's funeral

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation at the funeral of Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

The delegation is likely to include leaders from various political parties like the Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India and the Samajwadi Party.

The team will leave for Havana on Tuesday and is expected to return on Thursday evening, official sources said

The composition of the delegation is still being worked out by the Prime Minister’s Office in consultation with the Ministries of the External Affairs and Home.

After two days of commemorations in Cuba's capital Havana, Castro’s ashes will go on a four-day island-wide procession starting Wednesday before being buried in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba on December 4.

Castro died on November 25 at the age 90, after defying the United States during a half-century of iron-fisted rule and surviving the eclipse of global communism.

Castro, whose 1959 revolution toppled a dictatorship with the promise of bringing justice and equality to his Caribbean island, was a major 20th century figure.

Photograph: Reuters