Chief  Guests at Republic  Day  Parade

Part-I

As we celebrate  the 75th Republic Day on January 26, let’s look back at Chief Guests gracing the R-Day Parade over the decades under various Prime Ministers and how  these choices have shaped the country’s foreign policy

This year’s guest, Prabowo Subianto,  will be the third Indonesian Head of  State to come as  Chief Guest after  Joko Widodo in 2018, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011 and Sukarno in 1950

1955 marked  a significant moment  in diplomatic history as the Chief Guest was  from Pakistan – Governor-General 

Malik Ghulam  Muhammad

France has been honoured on six occasions. Jacques Chirac was invited twice in 1976 and 1998, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1980, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, Francois Hollande in 2016 and Emmanuel Macron in 2024

Bhutan was represented  four times.  Jigme Dorji Wangchuck  was the Chief Guest  in 1954

In 2015,  US President  Barack Obama became the first sitting American President to attend  R-Day celebrations

In 1959, Chinese Communist General  Ye Jianying  was the Chief Guest, who later became one of China’s top leaders

In 1965, Pakistan’s Food and Agriculture Minister  Rana Abdul Hamid attended the parade

RA Butler,  Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the first Chief Guest from the UK in 1956, along with Japan’s Chief Justice Kotaro Tanaka

Prince Philip  attended in 1960, followed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1961 while Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy of India, was invited in 1964