India holds scaled-back Republic Day celebrations amid Covid emergency

Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard for Republic Day parade leading to landmark war memorial India Gate, is barricaded on the eve of Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, India (Altaf Qadri/AP)

Thousands of people braved a morning chill on a ceremonial boulevard in India’s capital to watch a display of the country’s military power and cultural diversity, but the colourful annual Republic Day spectacle was curtailed amid Covid-19.

Nearly 500 schoolchildren, folk dancers, police and military battalions, floats and stunt performers on motorbikes paraded from the presidential palace down the refurbished tree-lined boulevard of Rajpath.