Politics should not be on the decision to build National War Memorial

The flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate has been merged with the National War Memorial. According to Army officials, the flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti was merged with the flame burning at the National War Memorial on Friday, January 21, 2022. You will be surprised to know that even after many battles after independence in the year 1947, no Amar Jawan Jyoti was established for the martyred soldiers till 1971 and till 2019 no National War Memorial was established.

India Gate was built by the British in 1931. Here the names of soldiers who died in the First World War and the Afghan War for the British Army are inscribed. Whereas Amar Jawan Jyoti was built in the memory of Indian soldiers who were martyred in the Indo-Pak (Bangladesh) war of 1971. The names of martyrs are not on Amar Jawan Jyoti. The National War Memorial was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 25, 2019, to pay true tribute to all the soldiers who died for the country. The names of 25,942 soldiers have been inscribed here.

The National War Memorial is the only memorial in the country, where the names of the martyred soldiers of the three forces are inscribed. It also includes the names of soldiers martyred in the 1971 war. It also contains the names of soldiers martyred during the Indo-Pak war in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 Kargil wars between India and China. Along with this, the names of soldiers martyred during the operations of Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka and during the United Nations peacekeeping missions are also inscribed in it.

Now the flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti has been merged with the flame of National War Memorial to pay tribute to all the jawans together. Congress started politics regarding this. The Congress has been opposing the National War Memorial since its inception. On the decision to build a National War Memorial, the then Chief Minister of Congress Sheila Dikshit had said that where will people go for a walk if the National War Memorial is built?