Nation grieves for a prince, leader

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">new delhi: "can time be so cruel," prime minister atal behari vajpayee wrote in the condolence book at 27 safdarjang road. grieving congressmen and others came to pay their tribute to the departed leader whose mortal remains were brought overnight from mainpuri. among the callers was president k r narayanan.the body will be taken tuesday morning to the all-india congress committee office from where scindia -- the second-in command in the lok sabha after sonia gandhi -- worked. it will then be flown to gwalior, the ancestral seat of the scindias, for the funeral on wednesday. the bodies, taken out of the water-logged field only after 8.30 on sunday evening, were carried to the local police station in a tractor-trolley. by that time, uttar pradesh chief minister rajnath singh had reached the station. former mp wasim ahmed said till he and his colleagues reached the crash site, the local administration had not done much. earlier in the evening on sunday, an air force helicopter had reportedly landed close to the plane. but taken off again when no survivors were found. they bodies flown into delhi early monday morning for an autopsy at the all-india institute of medical sciences. at noon, an ambulance brought scindia''s body home from aiims, a short drive away. "madhavrao scindia amar rahe," congressmen chanted as it was lifted out. "vajrapat ho gaya. kya kaal bhi itna kroor ho sakta hai (lightning has struck. can time be so cruel? )," vajpayee said. "a tragic loss," former prime minister i k gujral said as he emerged after paying homage. as the media waited for the ambulance to arrive from aiims, a convoy of vehicles, sirens blaring, drove past. the word was that it was <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">hindustan times</span> correspondent anju sharma''s body being taken to the electric crematorium. she was among the four journalists killed in the crash. to the people at the congress headquarters, they were faces as familiar as scindia. "we lost so many friends," one leader said. </div> </div>