The Central government on Monday came out strongly against the criticism by state governments over the non-inclusion of their tableaux in the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations.
The Centre said this is a wrong precedent adopted by the Chief Ministers to portray an outcome of an objective process as a flashpoint between the Central and states governments.
Slamming the states for alleging that the exclusion of their tableaux from the Republic Day parade was an insult, central government sources told PTI that it is a wrong precedent, and stressed that it is not the Centre but an expert committee that makes the shortlist.
The proposals of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were rejected by the subject expert committee after due process and deliberations, they said on Monday. The Centre claimed that this goes a long way in harming the country's federal structure.
"This is a wrong precedent adopted by chief ministers of states to portray the outcome of an objective process as a flashpoint between the Centre and the states. This goes a long way in harming the country's federal structure," a central government functionary a central government functionary told PTI.
"We have recently seen letters being written by chief ministers of some states about the exclusion of their state's tableaux in the Republic Day Parade. This is unmistakably linked to regional pride and projected as an insult to the people of the state by the Central Government. This script also plays out almost every year. Perhaps the Chief Ministers have no positive agenda of their own when they have to resort to the same old trick using misinformation year after year," government sources told IANS.
Meanwhile, explaining the process of selection of tableaux for the R-Day Parade, sources NDTV that tableaux proposals received from various states and central ministries are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee consisting of eminent people in the field of art, culture, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc.
"The tableaux proposals received from various states and central ministries are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee comprising eminent people in the field of art, culture, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc. The Expert Committee examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and visual impact before making its recommendations," sources told NDTV.
Sources told NDTV that a total of 56 proposals had come from states and central ministries and out of these 21 were shortlisted.
It is natural for more proposals to be rejected than those accepted given the paucity of time, they added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the omission of their states' tableaux and sought his intervention.
Excluding the tableau would deeply hurt the sentiments and patriotic feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu, Stalin said.
Expressing shock over the exclusion of West Bengal's tableau, which focussed on Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary year, Banerjee said such a move would cause "pain" to the people of her state. Several politicians in Kerala have also taken up the issue of the exclusion its tableau to criticise the Centre.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
