On Vijay Diwas, did Nirmala Sithraman make a conscious decision to adopt the Naval salute over the other two services or was it unintentional?
Almost all defence ministers have picked the Army’s open-palm posture to salute while offering tribute to the soldiers who died in various military operations, including the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, on the occasion of Vijay Diwas at India Gate.
In Navy, the salute is given with palm facing down and elbow straight for a reason. In earlier days, sailors were prone to getting grease on their hands while working on the ship. The palm-down salute was devised to hide the dirty palm from the seniors, which could have been disrespectful.
(Source: PTI)
Previous defence minister Manohar Parikkar or the UPA-era defence minister AK Antony, they have all given salute, the highest form of respect, the Army way.
The army salute is given with palms open to the person or object being shown respect. During salute the fingers are arranged close with no gap and the middle finger touches the eyebrow. Military historians say the open-palm salute posture was originally meant to convey the message that the person giving the salute is unarmed.
(Source: PTI)
The Air Force officers salute with their palms at 45 degrees to the ground indicating take-off. Earlier Air Force salute used to be like the Army's. But the new posture came into effect in 2006, when the IAF issued new salute norms to its personnel, which was somewhere in between the Army and Navy.
(Source: Twitter/Indian Air Force)
The new rules allow IAF personnel to salute superiors even while seated and in civil clothes.
