Indian Vice President Kant Dead
Kant was admitted to a New Delhi hospital on Saturday morning after he complained of severe chest pain.
"He is dead. He was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at 7:40 A.M. (0210 GMT) after a heart attack," a spokesman at the institute told Reuters. Kant died about an hour after being admitted.
Kant's death would not affect U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to India, officials said.
Powell is due to arrive in New Delhi on Saturday afternoon on his latest visit to the subcontinent to ease tensions between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir that have raised fears of war.
The federal cabinet held an emergency meeting over Kant's death and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee paid tribute to the man who was a scientist, a lover of Urdu poetry and an independence fighter. "He fought for democracy; he was a Gandhian," Vajpayee told reporters outside the hospital. "With his death, an era is coming to an end. He will always be remembered."
The government ordered flags flown at half mast.
Kant's five-year term as vice president, a largely ceremonial post, was due to end next month.
The Indian vice president is also the presiding officer of the Upper House of Parliament.
Kant, governor of southern Andhra Pradesh state before he became vice president, fought for independence from Britain.
Born in Punjab in 1927, he studied science at the Banaras Hindu University and worked as a scientist before entering Parliament's Upper House in 1966. He served in the Lower House from 1977 to 1980.
Kant's widow, Suman Kant, is a prominent women's rights campaigner. They have one daughter and two sons.