From Agniveers marching down the Kartavya Path to female camel riders on decorated camels – the 74th Republic Day parade would witness several firsts on the newly laid central vista through the early morning fog may play spoilsport.
The naval marching contingent will have nine Agniveers – six men and three women, who are undergoing training at INS Chilka in Odisha. The contingent headed by Lieutenant Commander Disha Amrit who hails from Mangaluru, will have 144 young sailors and followed by the naval tableau, which would also be having two more Agniveers.
With women empowerment being one of the parade themes, several marching contingents and tableaus would be led by women while others would highlight their roles. The regal camel contingent from the Border Security Force for the first time will have female camel riders.
Marching down the Kartavya Path for the first time will be the combined band and Marching contingent of the Egyptian Armed Forces as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be the Chief Guest at the parade. This happens at a time when Special Forces from India and Egypt are engaged in a joint heliborne military exercise at Jaisalmer signalling increasing strategic closeness between the two historic allies.
Five of the 17 states will have a tableau on women-centric themes including highlighting Devi Puja in forms popular in the states. "In our tableau, we've shown various aspects of Devi puja in our country. Various colours and masks, along with many dance forms based on it have been presented," said Govid Mohan, Secretary, of the Ministry of Culture.
For the first time and probably for the last time, Indian Navy’s ageing surveillance aircraft IL-38-SD surveillance aircraft that had served the Navy for 42 years will fly over the Kartavya Path as a part of a 50-aircraft flypast that would also see formation flying by IAF nine Rafale combat jets.
The showstopper Vertical Charlie – a fighter rolling on its axis – will be done by Rafale, instead of Su-30MKI, which did it for many years.