Have you ever wondered... : How India Chooses its Chief Guest For National Occasions?
Every year when India celebrates its Republic day and Independence day in the National Capital Delhi, There is a special guest who appears every time on these national occasions. But have you ever given thought to the process behind choosing the Chief Guest for these 2 special national Occasions? We will help you with it…
As there is a lot that goes behind the selection of the Chief Guest, the process starts nearly six months in advance of the event.
Ambassador Manbir Singh had earlier told that all kinds of considerations are taken into account by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) before extending the invitation.
The most central consideration is the nature of the relationship between India and the country concerned. Invitation to be the Chief Guest of the Republic day parade is the ultimate sign of friendship between India and the country of the invitee. Political, commercial, military, and economic interests of India are crucial drivers of the decision, with MEA seeking to use the occasion to strengthen ties with the country of the invitee in all these respects.
Another factor that has historically played a role in the choice of the Chief Guest is the association with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which began in the late 1950s, and early 1960s. The NAM was an international political movement of newly decolonized nations to stay out of the squabbles of the Cold War and support each other in their nation-building journeys. The first Chief Guest of the parade in 1950 was President Sukarno of Indonesia, one of the five founding members of the NAM alongside Nasser (Egypt), Nkrumah (Ghana), Tito (Yugoslavia) and Nehru (India).
El-Sisi’s arrival in India as the Republic Day’s Chief Guest invokes the history of the NAM and the close relationship India and Egypt have shared for 75 years.
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