Finally, India's Police Memorial to be inaugurated on Sunday

~1463039 The National Police Memorial which will be dedicated to the nation on Sunday | Sanjay Ahlawat

After delays due to controversies, political as much as they were aesthetic, India's National Police Memorial will finally be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday morning (October 21) from Delhi's Chanakyapuri.

In a first, the ceremony will be streamed live on the internet by the ministry of home affairs.

October 21 is commemorated annually as the National Police Day, in remembrance of 10 policemen ambushed and killed by Chinese troops in Ladakh's Hot Springs area on that day in 1959, a precursor to the full-blown Sino-Indian war of 1962.

For want of an official police memorial for the various state police personnel and para-military forces like CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SPG etc (India Gate is the official memorial for members of the armed forces killed in combat), annual homages were conducted till now at the site of the incident. That will change now.

As PM Modi opens the memorial and an underground museum at the same site to the public on Sunday, it will bring the curtains down on the long-drawn-out controversy over the memorial. A pet project of L.K. Advani, home minister and deputy prime minister in the first NDA government, the memorial construction was halted as Delhi's Urban Arts Commission objected to the height of the tower-like memorial and the fact that it will be taller than Rashtrapati Bhavan, which was less than a kilometer away from its location on Shanti Path, in the elite Diplomatic Enclave.

Lutyen's Zone rules make it clear that no building should be taller than the maximum tree height on all the symbolic axes (axis) radiating from the presidential palace, and most certainly not higher than its dome. Opposition went to town over the ''faux pas'', while the media and public voiced disgust at the 'monstrous' aesthetics of the bell-like structure. Construction soon came to a halt.

After lying untouched for a few years, the structure was demolished in 2008, and a new design was selected, based on a national competition. This one, from the design firm Lotus, envisaged a more horizontal and spread-out approach rather than the previous 'tall boy' tower. There are gardens, motifs ranging from the Ashoka Chakra to folded hands, all encircling a central stone epitaph. There is a wall of remembrance in lattice sandstone encircled by a ring of trees, engraved with the names of more than 34,000 policemen who have died in service since independence, ranging from fighting robbery to anti-terrorist operations.

Beside the prime minister, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, ministers of state Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Ahir and the various heads of all para-military forces will attend the launch function. The family of at least one personnel killed on duty from each force and police unit has been invited to attend the function, according to reports.

The underground museum, planned by the Intelligence Bureau under guidance from the Union home ministry, traces the origin of policing from prehistoric times to the formation of security forces by the Mughals, to how the institution transformed during the British-era and then independent India. It will feature artefacts as well as uniforms and other paraphernalia associated with policing over the years.

The inauguration webcast can be caught online on Sunday from 8am on www.police.gov.in or on http://webcast.nic.in/mha/ib