Amar Jawan Jyoti merged with eternal flame at National War Memorial
A part of the flame was carried to the war memorial this afternoon in a ceremony that was presided by the Integrated Defence Staff chief Air Marshal Balabadhra Radha Krishna.
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New Delhi, Jan 21: In a historical move by the Centre ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, the Amar Jawan Jyoti, or the "eternal flame" for soldiers at India Gate was merged with the torch at the National War Memorial in a ceremony on Friday.
A part of the flame was carried to the war memorial this afternoon in a ceremony that was presided by the Integrated Defence Staff chief Air Marshal Balabadhra Radha Krishna. He laid a wreath after which a torch was lit from the Amar Jawan Jyoti and the flame doused.
The torch was then taken to the national war memorial by a ceremonial guard from Guards Regiment of the Indian Army. After travelling for around 150 metres, the torch was used to symbolically merge the flame from Amar Jawan Jyoti with the one at the National War Memorial. Air Marshal Krishna presided over the ceremony at both the locations.
The India Gate memorial was built by the British government in memory of the British Indian Army soldiers who lost their lives between 1914-1921. Besides, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was constructed as a memorial for Indian soldiers who were killed in action in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, which India won, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. It was inaugurated by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, on January 26, 1972.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on February 25, 2019, inaugurated the NWM, where names of 25,942 soldiers have been inscribed in golden letters on granite tablets.