The sesquicentenary of ‘Vande Mataram’ will be the dominant theme of this year’s Republic Day Parade, with enclosure backdrops along the Kartavya Path displaying old paintings illustrating the opening stanzas of the National Song and floral artworks at the main stage paying homage to its composer Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
In a departure from traditional practice, ‘VVIP’ and other labels, used earlier for enclosures at the parade venue, will not be used. Instead, all enclosures have been named after Indian rivers, senior officials of the defence ministry said on Friday.
These include Beas, Brahmaputra, Chambal, Chenab, Gandak, Ganga, Ghagra, Godavari, Sindhu, Jhelum, Kaveri, Kosi, Krishna, Mahanadi, Narmada, Pennar, Periyar, Ravi, Sone, Sutlej, Teesta, Vaigai, and Yamuna, they said.
Similarly, for the Beating Retreat Ceremony on January 29, enclosures will be named on Indian instruments — bansuri, damaru, ektara, esraj, mridangam, nagada, pakhawaj, santoor, sarangi, sarinda, sarod, shehnai, sitar, surbahar, tabla and veena.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, will be the chief guests at the parade.
Defence Secretary R K Singh, in a press briefing at the South Block, shared the broader contours of the 77th Republic Day celebrations that will see many firsts this time.
The theme this year is 150 years of ‘Vande Mataram’ and the parade will celebrate it. The invitation cards will carry the logo of its sesquicentenary and a bunch of balloons carrying a banner themed on ‘Vande Mataram’ will be released in the air at the end of the parade.Also, band performances by the military and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are being held from January 19-26 on the theme of ‘Vande Mataram’ at around 235 locations in over 120 cities, he said.
These will include bands by the Army, the Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard.The performance venues will also include the ancestral home and birthplace of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee at Kanthalpara, Naihati, in North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal, presently known as ‘Bankim Bhawan Gaveshana Kendra’ (also referred to as Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Residence and Museum or Bankim Sangrahashala), the ministry said.
Thirty tableaux — 17 from various states and Union Territories, and 13 from ministries and services — will roll down the Kartavya Path, it said.
Tableaux will be showcased by Assam (theme – Ashirakandi: The craft village), Gujarat (theme – Swatantrata ka Mantra: Vande Mataram), Jammu and Kashmir (theme – handicrafts and folk dances of J-K), West Bengal (theme — Bengal in India’s freedom movement), Uttar Pradesh (culture of Bundelkhand), among other states and UTs.
Besides Air Headquarters (theme – Veteran Tableau: Nation Building through War), Naval Headquarters (theme – Samudra Se Samridhi) and Department of Military Affairs (a tri-Services tableau on Operation Sindoor, Victory through Jointness), Ministry of Culture (theme – Vande Mataram: The Soul-Cry of a Nation), will also showcase a tableau each, according to the ministry.Another senior official said enclosure backdrops on the Kartavya Path in Delhi will bear prints of artist Tejendra Kumar Mitra’s paintings that illustrate the opening lines of ‘Vande Mataram’.
According to the culture ministry, these paintings were published in 1923.
Videos on Vande Mataram will be played on screen at Kartavya Path.
As in previous years, various competitions, contests, and quizzes were conducted on the ‘MyGov’ and ‘MyBharat’ portals on the theme of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, which received a total participation of 1,61,224, the ministry said in a statement later.
In addition to cash prizes for the top 30 winners, the top 200 winners have been invited to witness the parade, the officials said.
Also, nearly 2,500 cultural artistes will perform on Kartavya Path in this year’s parade, the ministry said.
Around 10,000 people from all walks of society have been invited to witness the event at Kartavya Path as ‘special guests’ this year.People with exemplary work in connection with income and employment generation, technology, innovation, start-ups, self-help groups, and best performers under key government initiatives have been identified with the help of the departments concerned and invited to witness the ceremony.
These include winners of the World Athletic Para Championship, farmers practising natural farming, transgender and beggar rehabilitated under the PM-SMILE scheme, best performing scientists or technical persons involved in recent ISRO missions like Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan, and participants of ‘Mann ki Baat’, the ministry said.
“In order to ensure maximum Janbhagidari, the number of seats for the public has been increased. Accordingly, the number of tickets for the public has been increased, which were available for online booking through ‘Aamantran’ portal as well as ‘Aamantran App’ and through offline counters at various locations, including two major DMRC stations, from January 5-14,” it said.
A post-event ‘Swachhata’ campaign in coordination with MyBharat volunteers and NCC cadets covering a whole stretch of Kartavya Path has been planned and will be operated accordingly, it added.
To facilitate citizens to have ease in accessing information and getting access to witness the various events on Republic Day celebrations like booking tickets, getting the location of the seating and parking arrangements, a comprehensive mobile app and a portal — ‘Rashtraparv Portal’ has been developed and will serve as a focus point for all the details relating to the two events.
