THE Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate was merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial (NWM) here on Friday. The Amar Jawan Jyoti will be put out and people can now pay their respects at the eternal flame at the NWM, military officials said. After India defeated Pakistan in the 1971 war, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was constructed as a memorial for Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice. It was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, on January 26, 1972. In a short ceremony on Friday afternoon, a part of the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame was taken and merged with the flame at the NWM 400 metres away.

 

Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Air Marshal B R Krishna presided over the ceremony, the military officials said. 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. Ex-servicemen expressed mixed reactions on the Centre’s decision to merge the flames. Former Army Chief General Ved Malik supported the Government’s decision, stating that it is“a natural thing” to merge flames now as the NWM has been established and all ceremonials related to remembranceandhonouringsoldiers killed in action are being held there.FormerAirViceMarshal Manmohan Bahadur, however, tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi onTwitter and requested him to rescind the decision. “Sir,theeternalflameatIndia Gate is part of India’s psyche. You,I andour generationgrew up saluting our brave jawans there,” he stated. While the NWM is great, the memories of the Amar Jawan Jyoti are indelible, Bahadur noted.TheCongressonFriday morning accused the BJP Governmentof“removinghistory” by extinguishing the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate here and merging it with the eternal flame at the NWM. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi hit out, saying some people cannot understandpatriotismandsacrifice, and added that the Congress will light the AmarJawan Jyoti once again.

 

“It isamatter of great sadness that the immortal flame for our brave soldiers will be extinguishedtoday.Somepeople cannot understand patriotism and sacrifice - never mind...Wewillonceagainlight the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ for our soldiers,”Gandhisaidinatweet in Hindi. Government sources maintained there is a lot of misinformation on the matter, and said the flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti is not being extinguished but is being merged with the flame at the National War Memorial. BJPleader SambitPatra also echoed the Government view in a tweet. The Government sources said it was an odd thing to see that the flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti paid homage to the martyrs ofthe 1971 and otherwars but none of their names are present thereattheIndia Gate. The names inscribed on the India Gate are of only some martyrs who fought for the British in the World War-I and theAngloAfghanWar andthus is a symbol of the country’s colonialpast,theGovernment sources said. They said the names of all Indian martyrs from all the warsarehousedattheNational War Memorial. Hence, it is a truehomage tohave the flame payingtributetomartyrsthere, they added.