PM Modi to be guest of honour for French military parade - What is Bastille Day?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the guest of honour as France celebrates Bastille Day later this week. The two countries are expected to ink strategic and economic tie-ups amid growing Western efforts to court the world's largest democracy. President Emmanuel Macron's red carpet welcome incidentally comes mere weeks after Modi was given the rare honour of a White House state dinner.
The Bastille Day military parade on July 14 will also see the participation of Indian forces this year. Macron's Elysee Palace office had earlier said it would mark “a new phase in the strategic partnership between France and India". The two nations are also expecting to “set new objectives for strategic, cultural, scientific, academic and economic cooperation, including in a large number of industrial sectors".
Revolutionary insurgents had stormed a medieval armoury and political prison known as the Bastille in July 1789, marking a significant flashpoint in the French revoloution. July 14 is marked every year as a national holiday in France - locally dubbed ‘Bastille Day’. It is however pertinent to note that the celebrations are actually to mark the Fête de la Fédération of 1790 and coincide with the first anniversary of the Bastille Day.
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