School bands to play regularly at National War Memorial

Just ahead of the third anniversary of the inauguration of the National War Memorial in Delhi, school bands will start performing at the memorial every day on a rotational basis from Wednesday. The decision was taken by the Defence Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

The Amar Jawan Jyoti, lit underneath India Gate for 50 years, was merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial (NWM), which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 25, 2019. It has names of over 26,000 Indian soldiers of all ranks who have lost their lives in the many wars and operations for the country since Independence.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that “school bands will start performing at the National War Memorial in New Delhi on a regular rotation basis from February 23.” It mentioned that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) “has prepared a schedule of school bands in consultation with the Ministry of Education and Government of NCT of Delhi to perform at the NWM to celebrate the third anniversary of the iconic monument” on Friday.

It mentioned that to “celebrate the third anniversary, Ministry of Defence, in collaboration with Ministry of Education, took a decision of school band performances at NWM” with the objective “to inculcate the values of patriotism, devotion to duty, courage and sacrifice among the school children and increase the participation of people, especially the youth, so that they experience the various facets associated with the iconic war memorial.”

The statement mentioned that the initiative “carries forward the vision of the Veer Gatha project, which was jointly organised by Ministries of Defence & Culture to raise awareness among children about the gallant stories of the war heroes and instill the feeling of nationalism in their formative years through enhanced exposure.”

The Education Ministry, it said, has also requested the education departments of all states, Union territories to select one band from the schools of their respective states to perform in coordination with the Directorate of National War Memorial and Museum, Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff, as a part of the regular schedule. The CBSE is coordinating with all the schools in coordination with the Ministry of Defence.