Lucknow, Jan 23 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday urged the people to light a flame on the Republic Day in the "memory of Amar Jawan Jyoti", days after its merger with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial.

In a tweet in Hindi, Akhilesh Yadav said, "In the memory of 'Amar Jawan Jyoti', this time on January 26, let us all light a flame at our own level and together raise one voice of one country. (We) will take a pledge on January 26, and will light the Amar Jawan Jyoti once again. Those whose names are not registered in the country's history, they want to change the history."

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In a short ceremony on Friday afternoon, a part of the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at the India Gate was taken and merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial (NWM) 400 metres away.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on February 25, 2019, inaugurated the NWM, where names of 25,942 soldiers have been inscribed in golden letters on granite tablets.

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After India defeated Pakistan in the 1971 war, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was constructed as a memorial to Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice. It was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, on January 26, 1972.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)