As a school boy I loved watching telecast of the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, our smartly marching armed forces contingents, floats celebrating diverse cultures of India, daring motorcycle stuntmen, the world’s only camel-riding regiment, Air Force planes soaring past.

Forty years later I still love celebrating India becoming a Republic, but sometimes cringe at another Republic Day Parade stuck in a time-warp of little or no changes in decades. It’s the same routine, the same set-pieces and the same mistakes that ask questions of our maturity as a nation.

Military parades are an outdated anachronism of false pride, and particularly ironic when celebrating becoming a republic with civilian rule, and not military dictators. Having infinite gratitude to our armed forces is necessary and a duty, but mistaken ideas of patriotism do not do justice to brave soldiers sacrificing their lives for our safety.

Questions have not been asked – leave alone answered – about necessity for muscle-flexing showmanship to celebrate a Republic Day. More so, coming from a supposedly peace-loving people, and having an apostle of non-violence as ‘Father of the Nation’. Military-oriented parades are more favored in authoritarian, civil-liberty murdering regimes like China and the former Soviet Union.

Not that the January 26 muscle-flexing has done India much good. After nearly 70 years as a Republic, India failing to put a final full-stop to a neighboring country’s terrorist mischief represents one of our worst failures as a Republic. Even as rightful celebrations roll out for our 68th Republic Day, grieving families near the Western border are mourning deaths of those killed in cross-border firing. While polished, shining tanks rumble to cheers past the saluting President of India, while we see displayed expensive weapons of war annually costing India billions of dollars, Pakistani army atrocities continue taking its deadly, daily toll. Will this travesty continue until India’s 168th Republic Day?

Everyone loves a good parade, particularly a joyously colorful variety like India’s Republic Day parade. But it need not necessarily be a military-toned one. “New Delhi seems one big war museum”, I overheard a bemused Korean tourist say during one of my numerous visits to the Red Fort. She could be right, seeing India’s peculiar propensity to exhibit weapons of war, as in the Red Fort museums, as in the 1971-war captured Pakistani tank ridiculously displayed in a square in Srinagar.

One of the grandest celebrations of a National Day is the July 4 festivities of India’s sister democracy USA. Does the Washington DC parade starting at the corner of Constitution Avenue include the latest Abrams Main Battle Tanks thundering along 7th St NW?

The hollowness of such a military-oriented Republic Day tribute gets exposed in the shameful way the ceremony is conducted every January 26 to honour fallen heroes. The war widow is asked to stand in front of seated dignitaries like a school student in front of teachers, while the announcer reads the long tribute. The widows of fallen soldiers sometimes stand in a January drizzle, while umbrellas are held over seated dignitaries.

More than once I have seen a visiting head of state squirm uncomfortably in his seat, not knowing where to look, while the sombre-faced widow stands in front for him long, embarrassing minutes of what is supposedly a ceremony of tribute. Either have the brave widow seated somewhere while the commentator reads out the tribute, or have everyone seated in front of her stand respectfully during the description of how a soldier’s life, most dear to her family, was sacrificed in defending the country, to protect our lives. Basic courtesy goes missing while honoring a fallen hero.

“The Republic Day parade of January 26, 2018, will be remembered across the ages,” I read a comment attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I read the article expecting to see his announcing a new, technology-upgraded Republic Day Parade, from a technology-loving leader. But no, he was referring to a record number of heads of government invited to this year’s parade. The new invitees will be seeing only what we have been seeing for years, decade after decade: the same floats, the same stunts, the same displays reflecting technology of the 1970s.

In a technology-enriched country, with some of the world’s most talented innovators, the Republic Day parade should cleverly reflect and celebrate India’s technological, scientific progress. The parade could include holograms, 3D projections and many other 21st Century methods of marvel to display India’s successful march onwards, in various fields. But New Delhi’s Republic Day parade – like the Red Fort’s pathetically outdated ‘Sound and Light’ Show – continues being trapped in anachronistic displays in the national capital on an important national day.

If the Republic Day Parade of 2018 still remains the same, it will only be remembered again for our sometimes mistaken sense of grandeur, recurring amateurish approach to dealing with a celebration or cross-border terrorism. And will this time-warp trapped exhibition go marching past India Gate “across the ages”, across January 26 of year 4018?

The writer is a senior, Mumbai-based journalist.