By IANS,
New Delhi : The President’s Bodyguard (PBG) — the senior-most unit of the Indian Army — will be presented the Silver Trumpet and Trumpet Banner by President Pranab Mukherjee March 30.
While the PBG was raised in 1773 by the then governor general of India Warren Hastings as the Governor General’s Bodyguards, the presentation of a Silver Trumpet and Trumpet Banner was done first in 1923 by Lord Reading when the regiment completed 150 years.
Every president, being the supreme commander of the Indian forces, presents the trumpet to the PBG once in his or her tenure, Joint Secretary to the President Thomas Mathew said Friday.
Mukherjee will become the country’s 12th head of state to present the awards to the elite force,
“The only president who could not present the trumpet to the guards was Zakir Hussain due to his untimely demise,” he told reporters.
Currently, the force has four officers, 14 junior commissioned officers and 161 soldiers.
The ceremony, to be conducted at Rashtrapati Bhavan, will have a mounted parade followed by an audio-visual show on the significance of the Silver Trumpet and Trumpet Banner and the history of PBG.