News: Some sections of the society are against the merging of the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame with the torch at the National War Memorial.
The Amar Jawan Jyoti: it was a tribute to the 3,483 martyrs of the 1971 Bangladesh War.
India Gate: it was built as a tribute to the fallen soldiers who fought under the British flag in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
The National War Memorial: It was inaugurated in 2019. It is intended as a homage to martyrs of conflicts after Independence.
Why is the current place inappropriate?
Read more here: https://forumias.com/blog/relocating-the-amar-jawan-jyoti-to-national-war-memorial-is-logical-and-beyond-approach/
Why the New National War Memorial is by far better suited to house the eternal flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti?
Firstly, the Amar Jawan Jyoti has not been “extinguished”. It has merely been merged with the National War Memorial.
Secondly, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was always a “makeshift” memorial housed temporarily under the arch of India Gate. Ever since it was dedicated to the nation in 1972 the understanding was that the flame would be shifted to a more elaborate and permanent memorial.
Thirdly, soldiers inscribed on India Gate ‘a symbol of our colonial past’. They had no choice but to fight someone else’s arguably unjust war waged to preserve illegal colonial acquisitions
Source: This post is based on the article “There’s No Blame In Shifting The Flame” published in ToI on 25th Jan 2022.
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