New Delhi: The Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at India Gate will be extinguished and merged with the flame at the National War Memorial on today in a ceremony.
The ceremony would be presided over by the Integrated Defence Staff chief Air Marshal Balabadhra Radha Krishna who would merge the two flames, officials said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other leaders slammed the Central Government over its decision to extinguish the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate in the national capital after 50 years and merge it with the flame at the National War Memorial.
After a long wait and multiple considerations, the National War Memorial was built in the India Gate complex by the Narendra Modi government and was inaugurated in 2019.
After the inauguration of the building in War memorial, all military ceremonial events were shifted to it from the India Gate memorial.
The National War Memorial has the names of all the Indian defence personnel who have lost their lives in different operations from the 1947-48 war with Pakistan to the Galwan valley clash with Chinese troops.
The names of troops who lost lives in the counter-terrorist operations are also included on the walls of the memorial.
However, veterans of the armed forces have welcomed this decision.
MERGING OF ETERNAL FLAME.
It gives me great satisfaction that the eternal flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate is being merged with the National War Memorial(NWM). As someone who had steered the design selection & construction of NWM, I’d been of this view all along… +
1/2 pic.twitter.com/9l9AL0Dpza— Lt Gen Satish Dua?? (@TheSatishDua) January 21, 2022
#WATCH| India Gate, war memorial built by the British. National War Memorial is built in memory of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for nation from 1947 till today. Amar Jawan Jyoti will merge with National War Memorial:Brig Chitranjan Sawant(retd) R-Day commentator for 49 yrs pic.twitter.com/RPHOoZMXPu
— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2022
A natural thing to do now that the National War Memorial has been established and all ceremonials related to remembrance and honouring soldiers killed in action are being held there. https://t.co/IjgYSnhmvF
— Ved Malik (@Vedmalik1) January 21, 2022
Appreciate!✅
#NationalWarMemorial
Amar Jawan Jyoti To Be Put Out, “Merged” With War Memorial Torch https://t.co/mvjYTXfGfT— Maj Gen Brajesh Kr (@bkum2000) January 21, 2022
#IndiaGate The memorial has names of soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in WW I. These names also at National War Memorial.
Shifting of flame is a natural progression – from a temporary site to a permanent one!
— Sandeep Thapar ?? (@sandythapar) January 21, 2022
“India Gate was built (by the British) to pay homage to (84,000) soldiers who died in World War-I and earlier. The Amar Jawan Jyoti was later added as an ad hoc arrangement. Now that we have a proper NWM, it is appropriate to shift the eternal flame to the new location,” said former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retd).
