Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has conveyed to the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu that there exists a well-established system for selection of tableaux for participation in the Republic Day Parade (RDP), as per which Ministry of Defence invites proposals from all States, Union Territories, Central Ministries and Departments.
Mr. Singh was responding to letters from Ms. Mamata Banerjee and Mr. M.K. Stalin to the Prime Minister over the rejection of their State tableaux.
In the letter to the Tamil Nadu CM, Mr. Singh said, “For RDP-2022, a total of 29 proposals were received from States/ UTs including the proposal from State of Tamil Nadu. The tableaux from the State Government of Tamil Nadu was considered in the first three rounds of meetings. After the third round of meeting, the tableaux could not make it into the final list of 12 tableaux selected for participation in the RDP-2022.”
Mr. Singh further stated that tableaux from Tamil Nadu have been selected for participation in RDP during 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. “In view of the above details, you would appreciate that the selection of tableaux is as per the prescribed guidelines on the matter,” Mr. Singh said.
In his letter to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Singh said: “It was our government that celebrated the 75th anniversary of the government-in-exile of India led by Netaji in a grand manner in 2018 and honoured the surviving Soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj in the Republic Day parade.”
“I would also like to tell you that this time the CPWD tableau has also paid tribute to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary,” he added.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms. Banerjee said the people of Bengal were “deeply pained” by the Government of India’s decision.
Explaining the selection process, Mr. Singh said the tableaux proposals received are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee comprising eminent persons in the field of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography etc. The Expert Committee examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and its visual impact before making its recommendations. “As per the time slot allotted for tableaux in the overall duration of the parade, short listing of tableaux is done by the Expert Committee.
A Defence official said on Tuesday that a total of 21 tableaux including from nine ministries and government departments were selected this year. The States from which tableaux have been selected include Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
