Marching in Bastille Day Parade tribute to sacrifices of Indian soldiers in World War I, says Captain Aman Jagtap

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Aman Jagtap told the rank and file of an Indian Army contingent led by him, shortly before it stepped on the magnificent Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris to participate in the Bastille Day Parade. An Indian tri-services contingent took part in the historic military parade on July 14, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the guest of honour. Three Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force, along with French fighter jets, joined the flypast.

Capt Jagtap, who led the Punjab Regiment contingent of the Army, said in an interaction with PTI on his return that «this was our tribute to the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives over a century ago» while fighting on that foreign soil. Soldiers from the Punjab Regiment, one of the oldest units of the Indian Army, took part in both World War I and World War II, he said. An old monochrome photograph taken during the World War I (1914-1918) of Indian troops marching on the streets of France and a French woman pinning a flower to the uniform of a soldier is perhaps one of the defining images of the contribution by Indians and sacrifices made during the Great War.

Capt Jagtap said this image and other photographs of Indian soldiers in France during the war «were playing at the back of our minds when we reached Paris». Asked what was going through his mind when he was leading the troops on the great French avenue Champs-Elysees, he said, «The josh was super high among us all». «Shortly before our march started, I told members of our contingent — 'You are going to march on the land where our ancestors made the supreme sacrifice.

March today as if the land is on fire'. This is what I did to motivate them to give their best, and they did,» Capt Jagtap told PTI. The 242-member