Across India, Dussehra is being celebrated to mark the victory of good over evil.

In line with the annual tradition, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performed a ‘Shashtra Puja’ on Wednesday morning as the nation remains gripped with the Dussehra fervour. Rajnath Singh performed the rituals with the weapons at the Auli Military Station in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli with Army Chief General Manoj Pande in attendance.

India is the only country where ‘puja’ or worship of weapons is performed, the defence minister said. “We’re confident that our country is safe in the hands of our armed forces. The jawans of our armed forces and paramilitary forces are the pride of our country,” he said.

A video tweeted by news agency showed Rajnath Singh performing the visuals in the presence of armed forces amid chants of mantras. Another clip showed soldiers singing patriotic songs.

This comes just days after the defence minister attended the handover of the first batch of made-in-India light combat helicopters to the Air Force in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur in expansion of the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in the defence sector. “It is an important milestone for the Air Force, Since independence, the IAF was dependent on foreign attack helicopters. The dire need to reduce this dependence was felt during the 1999 Kargil War. This is set to change now,” he had said on Monday at the Jodhpur.

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