Pradip R Sagar By

NEW DELHI: It’s a march to women’s empowerment.Rajpath will have a tryst with history during the Republic Day Parade this year. US President Barack Obama, the chief guest at the Parade, will get a salute from a contingent of 150-odd women army officers who are participating for the first time. The idea for inclusion of a woman officer contingent into the Republic Day parade came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office to display the growing role for the women officers in the armed forces.

Also, in the process of making the parade a spotless event, New Delhi is also looking minutely into the marching styles followed by the tri services. A top official of the Ceremonial Division of the Ministry of Defence which organises the parade pointed out that tri services do not march in a similar way.

Recently, in a path-breaking move, the Modi-led NDA government has cleared the Indian Army’s proposal to offer permanent commission to women officers, which gives them a bigger role in units like Intelligence Corps, Signals Corps, Ordinance Corps, Army Service Corps and Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corps. Unlike countries like the US, Israel, Australia, Sri Lanka and Sweden, where women officers serve in combat roles, India has not opened combat field to women officers. At present, women can join the army as short service commission officers and get posted in less-critical branches such as Judge Advocate General Branch, Army Medical Corps and Military Nursing Service.

Indian Army allowed women as officers for the first time in 1992 when they were introduced as Special Entry Group for four years, which extended up to 14 years in 2004. Even the extended service cannot promote a woman officer up to the rank of a Colonel, which is mandatory to be the commanding officer of the unit.

Earlier, woman officers had even moved the court seeking permanent commission and command. The previous government had set up a high-level committee to examine the possibilities of allowing woman officers permanent commission and command. Military experts believe that the major fear of the Indian military in allowing woman into active combat is hostage situations involving woman officers.

A new controversy has generated in the process of giving the parade a perfect look. It’s about how high the Indian armed forces—the Army, Navy and Air Force—should raise their arms while marching past President Pranab Mukerjee and Obama on the Republic Day. It was observed that the Navy and Air Force’s marching contingents swing arms above shoulders and stamp their feet. But for the Army, the arms should only swing up to the shoulders in front and should be parallel to the waist belt on the swing back. Also, the officer leading the contingent should not stamp his feet at the saluting dais before giving the “eyes right” command.

In an attempt to make into the same grid, the Indian Army has cited the rule book—the Defence Services Ceremonial Regulations, 1961—which says that the troops and officers taking part in the parade are not supposed to raise their arms above the shoulder while marching.