Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a war memorial dedicated to Soviet soldiers killed in World War II.
The memorial is located at the Kremlin Wall in the Alexander Garden here.
The prime minister, braving cold weather, stood for a few minutes before the flamewhichilluminates a bronze inscription that reads "Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal" at the memorial.
The remains of the unknown soldiers killed in the Battle of Moscowin 1941 were initially buried in a mass graveof the Shtyki Memorialat the 40th km of the Leningrad highway at the city of Zelenograd.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the battle, in December 1966, these remains were relocated to the Kremlin Wall.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was designed by architects D I Burdin, V A Klimov, Yu R Rabayev and sculptor Nikolai Tomsky.
The memorial was unveiled to the public on May 8, 1967.
The dark red porphyrymonument is decorated with a bronze sculpture of a laurelbranch and a soldier's helmet laid upon a banner.
The torch for the memorial's Eternal Flame was transported from Saint Petersburg where it had been lit from the Eternal Flame at the Field of Mars.
To the left of the tomb is a granite wall with an inlay stating: "1941 - To Those Who Have Fallen For The Motherland - 1945".
To the right of the tomb, there is a granite alley made of porphyry plates with encapsulated soils from hero cities, Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Volgograd, Odessa, Sevastopol, Minsk, Kerch, Novorossiysk, Tula and Brest.
The plate for Volgograd has since been changed to Stalingrad, the city's name during the Second World War.
The proposed memorial's main feature will be an imposing
192-metre-tall statue of a triumphant Maratha king riding a horse. The statue will be surrounded by an art museum, an amphitheatre, auditorium, exhibition gallery and other facilities.
In run up to the ceremony and Modi's visit, the BJP government launched an advertisement blitzkrieg.
Maharashtra's nodal agency for information dissemination, DGIPR, had instructed officials in districts to put hoardings and posters celebrating the event.
The government also released radio jingles, newspaper and television advertisements, and online commercials to promote the grand ceremony.
With elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) round the corner, the BJP in Maharashtra left no stone unturned to ensure Modi's official visit here also boosts the party's chances in the crucial elections.
Shiv Sena is ruling the BMC for over two decades in alliance with BJP.
The event marking laying of foundation for the memorial is being seen as the BJP Government's 'vachanpurti' (fulfilment of Assembly poll promise).
The state government had ordered collection of water from all rivers across Maharashtra and soil from historic sites, which were brought to Mumbai in metal pots (kalash) yesterday.
This was then collected in a large pot, which Modi immersed at the 'jal pujan' site.
The 'jal pujan' 'muhurt' at the memorial site was at 2.59 pm. Three hovercraft were roped in to carry the PM and other dignitaries to the 16.5-hectare rock islet off the coast along Girgaum Chowpatty.
Major political parties, including BJP and Shiv Sena, are competing to claim the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a highly revered figure in Maharashtra and across the country.
BJP's bickering ally Shiv Sena as well as Opposition Congress and NCP are miffed the way the ruling party is trying to "appropriate" the legacy of the Maratha king.
Sena, which has always claimed the legacy of Shivaji, faced a challenge on that front for the first time from the BJP in 2014, when General Elections changed the social and caste equations with aspiring Marathas, OBCs and some Dalit factions joined hands with the saffron party.
The memorial project has been facing stiff opposition from fisherfolk and environmentalists, who have alleged it would affect marine life and ecology of the Arabian Sea.
