Earlier, the ceremony used to end with the Christian hymn 'Abide With Me', said to be a favourite of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and written by a Scottish Anglican preacher named Henry Francis Lyte.
Union Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh also said that the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi was, is and will remain relevant and described him as a guide (margdarshak) for the nation.
COAS Bipin Rawat, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh and NSA Ajit Doval were speaking at the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) 41st directors’ conference yesterday.
In March, the controversial left-wing lawyer Prashant Bhushan wanted to file an eight-page note, which was allegedly "stolen" from the defence ministry and later published by N Ram of the Hindu.