‘India or family first?’ PM Modi slams Congress at National War Memorial launch
New Delhi, Feb 25: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National War Memorial near India Gate on Monday after addressing a mega event at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.
The memorial will honour soldiers who have laid down their lives for the country since Independence.
"The prime minister will dedicate the memorial to the nation on February 25. The defence minister, chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force will be among the dignitaries present on the occasion," a senior official said.
#WATCH Delhi: PM Narendra Modi,Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the three Service Chiefs at the #NationalWarMemorial pic.twitter.com/mb2Myw547Y
— ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2019
A multi faith prayer held at the inauguration of the #NationalWarMemorial in Delhi pic.twitter.com/0wO8yki5oq
— ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2019
#WATCH PM Narendra Modi inaugurates the National War Memorial at India Gate in Delhi https://t.co/PrhOhfiPik
— ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2019
Some other cabinet ministers are also likely to attend the event, he said.
"The National War Memorial will include a wall that will carry the names of those soldiers who have laid down their lives for the country," Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat had earlier said.
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"The memorial would be iconic and serve as a new landmark, which would attract people from near and far," he had said.
Majestic #NationalWarMemorial...
For a visual tour to the grand structure, do watch this video.@PIB_India @DDNewsLive pic.twitter.com/vhswGdoEH7
Acceding to a long-pending demand of the armed forces, the government in 2015 had approved the project for building a National War Memorial and a National War Museum near India Gate in memory of over 22,500 soldiers who laid down their lives post-Independence.
"This government will be establishing a war memorial and a museum with a deep sense of gratitude to honour those brave soldiers, who laid down their lives," an official statement released after the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Modi, had then said.
"The memorial will promote a sense of patriotism in the minds of visitors, and will award an opportunity to citizens of this vast nation, to express their token sense of gratitude to the brave soldiers, who laid down their lives for the motherland," it said.
India Gate itself is a war memorial built during the British Raj as the All India War Memorial Arch to honour the soldiers who died in the First World War (1914-1918) and the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919). The landmark has the names of soldiers inscribed on its surface.