The government today clarified that the flame of Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate in the national capital is not being extinguished but merged with the flame at the National War Memorial, ridiculing ”misinformation” being spread on the issue.
”It is clarified that the flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti is not being extinguished. It is being merged with the flame at the National War Memorial,” sources said.
It was an odd thing to see that the flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti pays homage to the martyrs of the 1971 and other wars but none of their names were present there, sources said.
They claimed that the names inscribed on the India Gate were of only some martyrs who fought for the British in World War I and the Anglo-Afghan War and thus was a symbol of the country’s colonial past.
Sources noted that the names of all Indian martyrs from all the wars, including 1971 and wars before and after it, were housed at the National War Memorial. “Hence it is a true ‘shraddhanjali’ to have the flame paying tribute to martyrs there. It is ironic that people who did not make a National War Memorial for seven decades are now making a hue and cry when a permanent and fitting tribute is being made to our martyrs,” they added.
The Congress has attacked the government over extinguishing the eternal flame lit up at Amar Jawan Jyoti and alleged that it was like ‘extinguishing history and is nothing short of a crime’.
Congress MP Manish Tewari on Friday tweeted, “Extinguishing Amar Jawan Jyoti tantamounts to extinguishing history For it commentates sacrifice of those 3,483 brave soldiers who cleaved Pakistan into 02 parts and redrew the map of South Asia post-partition It is ironical that in 50th year of liberation of Bangladesh, Government seems to be working overtime to erase India’s finest hour in Post Independent History”.