Amar Jawan Jyoti merged with eternal flame at National War Memorial

New Delhi: After flickering continuously for 50 years beneath the arches of the India Gate, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was on Friday merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial.

The Amar Jawan Jyoti was built after India's victory against Pakistan in the 1971 war, as a memorial for Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice, and was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on January 26, 1972.

In these five decades, the flame and the inverted bayonet and a soldier's helmet have become as much part of the Indian psyche as the India Gate itself, which has been celebrated in books, films and photographs since its opening 90 years ago.

Designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, India Gate, a prominent tourist attraction today, is a solemn memorial to the soldiers from India who died in action, and originally called the All-India War Memorial Arch.

The monumental sandstone arch, often compared to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was opened a decade after its foundation was laid by the Duke of Connaught over a century ago on February 10, 1921, according to archival records.

The 42 m-high All India War Memorial Arch was built 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.

Over 80,000 Indian laid their lives in those campaigns and India Gate bears names of 13,516 etched over its surface.

The move to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti has triggered a controversy, also drawing sharp reaction from Congress, mixed response from former military officers and ex-servicemen, while many citizens took to social media to express their feelings about the flickering flame beneath the India Gate, which has been part of national consciousness for half a century.

A section of historians too lamented the "sudden transition" of "this sacred landscape", and said, any change in this heritage precinct should have been done only after "due deliberations and proper public consultations".

Former Army Chief General Ved Malik supported the government's decision, stating that it is "a natural thing" to merge flames now as the NWM has been established and all ceremonials related to remembrance and honouring soldiers killed in action are being held there.

Former Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur, however, tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter and requested him to rescind the decision.

"Sir, the eternal flame at India Gate is part of India's psyche. You, I and our generation grew up saluting our brave jawans there," he stated.

While the NWM is great, the memories of the Amar Jawan Jyoti are indelible, Bahadur noted.

The Congress on Friday morning accused the BJP government of "removing history" by extinguishing the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate here and merging it with the eternal flame at the NWM.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out, saying some people cannot understand patriotism and sacrifice, and added that the Congress will light the Amar Jawan Jyoti once again.

"It is a matter of great sadness that the immortal flame for our brave soldiers will be extinguished today. Some people cannot understand patriotism and sacrifice - never mind...We will once again light the 'Amar Jawan Jyoti' for our soldiers," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

Government sources maintained there is a lot of misinformation on the matter, and said the flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti is not being extinguished but is being merged with the flame at the National War Memorial.

BJP leader Sambit Patra also echoed the government view in a tweet.

Criticising the decision, Trinamool spokesman Kunal Ghosh told reporters the decision was a disrespect to the history of India, the martyrdom of the country's soldiers in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war.

"Those with no contribution in India's freedom movement, those who have no respect for our freedom struggle and valour of soldiers can shift the Amar Jawan Jyoti from its original spot in India Gate, can shunt out the Netaji tableau of the state from the Republic Day parade," the Trinamool state General Secretary claimed.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Adhir Choudhury too criticised the decision stating the Modi government is taking decisions in an arbitrary manner without considering the sentiment of billions of Indians.

CPI(M) state Secretary Suryakanta Mishra said "the Modi government is guided by the ideology of RSS who didn't have any role in India's freedom struggle. We had been repeatedly saying that the BJP has made a mockery of India's history. Their latest acts on the eve of the Republic Day points to that fact."

The government sources said it was an odd thing to see that the flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti paid homage to the martyrs of the 1971 and other wars but none of their names are present there at the India Gate.

The names inscribed on the India Gate are of only some martyrs who fought for the British in World War-I and the Anglo-Afghan War and thus is a symbol of the country's colonial past, the government sources said.

They said the names of all Indian martyrs from all the wars are housed at the National War Memorial. Hence, it is a true homage to have the flame paying tribute to martyrs there, they added.