New Delhi: After the rejection of West Bengal’s tableau proposal for the upcoming Republic Day parade became a fresh flashpoint, a source in the central government has clarified that tableaux of many BJP-ruled states have also been rejected this year.
The official cited the cases of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh – all BJP-ruled states whose tableau proposals were turned down – to assert that the selection process for the parade was strictly non-political.
The clarification came after a minister in the Mamata Banerjee government in the state, Tapas Roy, accused the Centre of vindictive politics. He alleged that the Centre rejected the tableau proposal because the state government had “opposed anti-people laws like CAA”.
But the official that the tableau of the West Bengal government was shortlisted for participation in last year’s Republic Day Parade as an outcome of the same process.
“There is a well-established system for selection of tableaux for participation in the Republic Day Parade as per which Ministry of Defence invites proposals for tableau from all states/UTs and central ministries/departments,” the official said.
“The tableaux proposals are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee comprising of eminent persons in the field of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography etc,” he added.
The defence ministry had on Wednesday rejected West Bengal's tableau proposal after an expert committee examined it in two rounds of meeting, a statement by the ministry said.
The ministry had received 32 tableau proposals from states and union territories and 24 from central ministries and departments of which 22 proposals, comprising 16 states/UTs and 6 ministries/departments, have finally been short-listed, the statement said.
The Bengal tableau was proposed to be on the government’s ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’ initiative to propagate the theme of women empowerment alongside a message on ‘Sarva Dharma Samanvaya’ (embodying equality).
Speaking to News18, senior TMC leader Colonel Diptanshu Chaudhary (Retd), said the tableau proposal was rejected because the BJP-led Union government “doesn’t believe in these themes.”
“Kanyashree, a West Bengal government initiative to improve the status and well-being of girls, won the United Nations Public Service Award and the Centre is now feeling the heat over it due to its comparisons with ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padao’,” he claimed.
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