West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “shock and hurt” that the proposed tableau of West Bengal has been excluded from the Republic Day parade.
“I have been profoundly shocked and hurt by the decision of the government of India to abruptly exclude the proposed tableau of the government of West Bengal from the ensuing Republic Day parade. It is even more baffling for us that the tableau has been rejected without assigning any reasons or jurisdiction,” she wrote.
The Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to reconsider the decision emphasising that it showcases the sacrifices and contribution of lakhs of freedom fighters and would be most befitting way to pay our respect and homage on the 75th year of Independence.
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The Trinamool Congress chairperson said the tableau was “commemorating the contributions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his INA 125th birth anniversary year and was carrying the portraits of some of its most illustrious sons and daughters — Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo, Matangini Hazra, Nazrul, Birsa Munda and many patriots”.
‘Deeply pained’
“I may like to inform you that all the people of West Bengal are deeply pained by this attitude of the Central government. Bengal was at the forefront of the freedom struggle and has paid the heaviest price for the Independence through partition and uprooting millions of people,” she wrote in the two-page letter. She said the exclusion of the tableau amounts to belittling and undermining these freedom fighters.
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The TMC leadership described the decision as the Union government’s “continuous deprivation of West Bengal”.
On an earlier occasion, the tableau highlighting conditional cash transfer schemes like Kanyashree was excluded from the parade resulting in strong criticism from the party.