TIL Desk/National/ New Delhi/ India celebrate its 70th Republic Day on Saturday, January 26, 2019. It is on this day that the Constitution of India came into effect. One of the spectacles on this day is the Republic Day parade, held in the national capital. It will begin from Vijay Chowk and proceed towards the Red Fort grounds through the Rajpath, India Gate, Tilak Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Netaji Subhash Marg.
India invited South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa as Chief Guest for the event. Ramaphosa, who was Nelson Mandela’s choice for future President of South Africa, became president in February 2018. The decision to invite Ramaphose, a keen Gandhi follower, also coincides with Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued with his tradition of donning colourful turbans at Republic Day celebrations on Saturday by sporting a yellowish orange headgear with a red tail. Wearing his traditional kurta pajama and the trademark Nehru jacket, Modi paid tributes to the martyrs at the Amar Jawan Jyoti before heading for the Republic Day parade.
Turbans have been a highlight of the PM’s sartorial choices at Independence Day and Republic Day events. Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, a surrendered militant who became a soldier, was posthumously awarded India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra, on Republic Day for his courage during a fierce encounter in which six terrorists were killed in Kashmir last November. Wani’s wife and mother received the award from President Ram Nath Kovind.
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