Republic Day, India: Guests of Honour (general)
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1951-2020: vignettes
V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From: V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From: V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From: V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From: V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From: V Kumara Swamy, January 24, 2021: The Times of India
From the British royals, to Chinese and Pakistani government functionaries, India’s celebration as a sovereign democratic republic has seen many significant invitees over the past 71 years
After British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced recently that he will not be travelling to India as chief guest at the Republic Day parade on January 26, 2021, India has decided not to invite any other foreign dignitary in his place. Johnson cancelled the trip on January 5, as a new mutant strain of the coronavirus emerged in the UK.
This for the first time since 1966 that that India will not have a global leader as guest, as the country celebrates the Republic Day function.
Over the years, India has invited several heads of state and world leaders, big and small, of varying stature, as guests for the Republic Day parade. The guest list has included: Yugoslavia's President Josip Broz Tito (1968 and 1974), Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere (1971), South Africa's President Nelson Mandela (1995), Russian President Vladimir Putin (2007), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2014) and US President Barack Obama (2015).
Here, we look at other significant names over the last 71 years.
1. President Sukarno of Indonesia was the Guest of Honour during India’s first Republic Day event in 1950. Leader of the Indonesian independence movement and free Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno was a friend of India, and together with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Sukarno founded the Non-aligned Movement (NAM). Timing it with his visit in 1950, Delhi University conferred upon him an honorary PhD on January 25, 1950. Prime Minister Nehru, who was a friend of Sukarno, was present at the convocation.
2. The first guest at the Republic Day parade when it moved to Rajpath in 1955, was an unlikely one: Pakistan’s Governor General Malik Ghulam Mohammed. Surprisingly, he wasn’t the only Pakistani official to be invited (see point 5). At a banquet hosted by President Dr Rajendra Prasad on the eve of Republic Day, Mohammed said, "The basic problems which are facing India and Pakistan are essentially the same. It is, therefore, very important for both countries that they cooperate in solving them and adopt the same principles and fellow-feeling in doing so."
3. A Chinese military delegation led by Ye Jianying visited India from January 22 to March 3, 1958. A frontline leader in the Chinese Communist Party and a key military administrator, he later held significant posts in the Chinese government. Jianying was the first, and last, Chinese leader to be invited as the Guest of Honour for R-Day celebrations.
4. British royals, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Elizabeth II are the only husband and wife duo to be invited separately as Guests of Honour at India’s Republic Day celebrations. While Prince Philip was invited in 1958, just over a decade after India’s Independence, Queen Elizabeth II graced the occasion two years later, in 1961.
5. The second, and last, time a Pakistani delegate was invited as the Guest of Honour at the Republic Day function was in 1965. Within weeks of the visit of Rana Abdul Hamid, minister for food and agriculture, the Pakistani Army started initiated incursions at the international border in Kutch, Gujarat. There were several skirmishes before peace was restored in the area. But Pakistan, clearly, had already been preparing for the war in Kashmir later that year.
6. India did not receive a guest for the Republic Day parade in 1966. This was due to the sudden death of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on January 11. Gulzarilal Nanda was sworn in as the Acting Prime Minister for a period of 13 days thereafter. Finally, Indira Gandhi took over as Prime Minister on January 24, just ahead of the Republic Day celebrations.
7. Jacques Chirac was the French Prime Minister when he was invited as the guest of honour for the parade in 1976. He returned as guest 22 years later, in 1998, but this time as the President of France. Chirac is the only person to have attended the function twice, in his two different roles.
8. The rulers of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1954), Jigme Singye Wangchuck (1984 and 2005), Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (2013), royals from the same dynasty (father, son and grandson), have attended the parades. And all three have been invited as Guests of Honour at the Indian Republic Day celebrations on four different occasions.
