Spectacular Army Day Parade Coming To Lucknow

On January 15, 2024, the Indian Army will hold its yearly Army Day parade in Lucknow. This is in line with how the three services now hold their most important ceremonies outside of the national capital, officials said on Sunday.

Before this year, the parade was always held in Delhi. This year, it went to Bengaluru.

One of the officials mentioned above said that after the parade in Bengaluru, the army is now making sure that each of its six operational commands gets a chance to host the show. The goal is to get more people involved, bring the country together, and show off the strength and order of the army to a wide range of people, he said.

The air force and the navy also use the same strategy.

On October 8, when the Indian Air Force turns 91 years old, there will be a parade in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, for Air Force Day. Up until 2021, the parade was always held at the Hindan air base. After that, the event moved outside of the national city. Last year, it was held in Chandigarh.

Also, this year’s Navy Day celebrations will take place at the Sindhudurg Fort off the coast of Maharashtra. This fort was built in the 17th century by the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. India has Navy Day on December 4 to remember when the navy attacked Karachi harbor during the war with Pakistan in 1971.

At the commissioning event of the aircraft carrier Vikrant last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed off the navy’s new ensign. The flag was based on the seal of the Maratha king and the Cross of St. George being dropped. Modi said that the move was a way to get rid of the weight of India’s colonial past.

Last year, Navy Day events took place in Visakhapatnam for the first time outside of New Delhi.

Since the NDA government took over nine years ago, important military meetings like the Combined Commanders’ Conference have also been held outside of New Delhi.

At the Combined Commanders’ Conference in Bhopal on April 1, Modi looked at the operational readiness of the armed forces in light of the ongoing border dispute with China. He also did a security review and told the military to stay ready for new and rising threats.

Before that, on March 6, Rajnath Singh, India’s defense minister, spoke at the start of a top navy meeting on India’s first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. This brought the country’s steps toward self-reliance in the defense manufacturing sector into sharper focus.