KASHIF HASNAIN
New Delhi: Marching contingents, strategic defence weaponry and colourful tableaux were displayed on Friday during 69th Republic Day celebration at India Gate with a grand parade. The parade was presided over by President Ram Nath Kovind.
The parade was witnessed live by thousands along with 10 ASEAN leaders who attended the event as chief guests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the guests after which President Ram Nath Kovind hoisted the tricolour to a 21-gun salute.
History was made when 10 Asean leaders witnessed the parade together at Rajpath. Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Thai Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, Singaporean Premier Lee Hsien Loong and Brunei’s Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah were among the ASEAN leaders who attended the event.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian Premier Hun Sen also watched the grand parade.
Cold weather conditions and dense fog hovered over the city but failed to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands of spectators who witnessed the nearly one-and-half-hour-long Republic Day parade from the Rajpath to the Red Fort amid an unprecedented security cover.
Special teams, anti-aircraft guns and snipers have been deployed to keep a vigil on the eight-km parade route from Rajpath to Red Fort. Hundreds of CCTV cameras as well as drones are watching people’s movements along the parade route. Nearly 60,000 security personnel from the Delhi Police and central security forces have been deployed in Central Delhi.
Parade ends with a SU-MKI ‘vertical charlie’
The Rudra Formation, the Hercules Formation, Netra, Globe Formation and several more formations by the Indian Air Force marked the culmination of the Republic Day parade.The president’s bodyguards have arrived to escort him back to the Rashtrapati Bhavan after the national anthem.
