Punjab will showcase the 350th martyrdom year of Guru Tegh Bahadur at the 77th Republic Day Parade in New Delhi on January 26, while the Indian Air Force (IAF) will fly a formation of jets to showcase the formation of air attack during operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May last year.

The Ministry of Defence on Thursday said a total of 30 tableaux — 17 of states and union territories, and 13 of central ministries and armed services — will roll down the Kartavya Path in New Delhi during the parade.

With a broad theme of ‘Swatantrata ka Mantra: Vande Mataram’ and ‘Samriddhi ka Mantra: Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, the tableaux will showcase a unique mix of 150 years of national song Vande Mataram and the nation’s rapid progress on the back of the growing self-reliance across sectors, dipped in its rich and vibrant cultural diversity.

Meanwhile for the IAF, a special highlight this year is a single powerful composite formation named ‘Sindoor’. It will include Rafale, Sukhoi-30MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar jets.

“This will be depicting a decisive edge and operational dominance,” IAF officials said on Thursday.

The formation will comprise of total seven fighters flying along with the IAF contingent. A helicopter will be carrying the Operation Sindoor flag.

The ‘Sindoor’ formation is part of the flypast. Other than ‘Sindoor’ formation, the flypast would include various aircraft and helicopters like the indigenously made light combat helicopter (LCH) and the advanced light helicopter (ALH).

Attack helicopter Apache made by Boeing and the Russian-origin Mi-17 helicopter will be part of the parade, along with special operations planes the C-295 and C-130 along with the Naval maritime surveillance plane the Boeing P-8I.

Army will have four of its helicopters as part of the parade.

Besides Punjab, other states to have a tableau will be Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.