For the second time in a row, the proposed tableau of the West Bengal government has not been shortlisted for the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi. The development triggered a political slug fest in the State with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) accusing the Centre of being “vindictive” towards West Bengal as the ruling party here has organised protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
“Since the West Bengal government is opposing the anti-people policies of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government, a stepmotherly treatment is meted out to the State,” Tapas Roy, Minister of the State for Parliamentary Affairs, told journalists.
‘Following procedure’
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that all the Centre was doing was “following a laid down procedure where a committee takes a final decision on whether a tableau will make it to the Republic Day Parade or not”.
“Earlier also the tableau of the West Bengal government was rejected. Instead of indulging in politics, the officials of the State government should look at what’s going wrong and correct it,” Mr. Ghosh said.
This is not the first time that the State’s tableau is being excluded from the Republic Day Parade. In 2018, Bengal’s proposal for a tableau on ‘Unity and Harmony’ was rejected. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had described the rejection of the State’s tableau to the Republic Day Parade in 2018 as an insult to people of the State. There has been no reaction from her on the current development so far.
Flagship theme
For the Republic Day celebrations of 2020, the West Bengal government had proposed to decorate its tableau based on three flagship welfare programmes — the Kanyashree Scheme (a conditional cash transfer scheme for girl students), Sobujshree (a sapling to every newborn), and Jal Dharo Jal Bharo (on water conservation).
A statement from the Centre did not explain the reason why the tableau from West Bengal was not included. The statement merely added, “was not taken forward for further consideration by the Expert Committee after deliberations in the second meeting”.
