NEW DELHI: This time, consider yourself lucky if you could get a pass for the Republic Day parade. The government has allowed only 45,000 spectators – around 64% cutback from pre-Covid number of 1.25 lakh. The pandemic peak saw about 25,000 invites.
The official reason is that Kartavya Path should be kept free for visitors for the most part of the day. Then there is a new seating arrangement. Rajesh Ranjan, Joint Secretary (Ceremonial) in the Ministry of Defence told the media that the seats will be well-placed and retractable. Of the 45,000 seats, about 32,000 are open for the people, he said. This time, all invitations are online.
“This time, the participation of the public in these programmes is the main theme,” said Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane. The R-day theme is ‘Janbhagidari,’ said Aramane. He said labourers of Central Vista projects and their family, maintenance workers at Kartavaya Path, milk booth vendors, vegetable and small grocery vendors will be the special invitees.
“We have cut down the VVIPs invitation cards. Earlier, we had around 50,000 invitations, which have been reduced to 12,000,” said Ranjan. The parade’s focus will be on Make-in-India products, including Main Battle Tank,NAG Missile system, BrahMos, Akash Missile, and Advanced Light Helicopter, among others.The chief guest of the event will be Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. A 120-member contingent of the Egyptian military will march on Kartavaya Path for the first time.