Chennai: Rejection of Tamilnadu’s Republic Day tableau has snowballed into a political row in the State, with leaders including Chief Minister M K Stalin expressing disappointment.
Stalin on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to question the rejection of the State’s tableau for the upcoming Republic Day parade in New Delhi.
In the letter, a copy of which was released to the media, Stalin called the rejection disappointing and asked the Prime Minister to intervene. In addition to Tamilnadu, West Bengal and Kerala’s tableaus have also been rejected and will be excluded from the Republic Day parade on 26 January.
Stalin said in his letter: ‘The rejection of Tamilnadu’s tableau, that included freedom fighters VOC, Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Rani Velu Nachiyar and Maruthu Brothers, from the Republic Day Parade is disappointing. I ask that the respected Prime Minister intervene immediately and ensure that Tamilnadu’s contribution to the freedom struggle is given a place (in the parade)’.
Other leaders too have called upon the Union government to include the tableau in the parade as a mark of honouring the feelings of Tamilnadu people.
Meanwhile, Central government sources said the tableau of Tamilnadu and some other States were rejected by the Subject Expert Committee after ‘due process and due deliberations’.
‘Due to time constraints, only some of the proposals can be accepted,’ they said and added 56 proposals were received for the Republic Day parade 2022 from States and Central Ministries of which 21 have been shortlisted. ‘It is natural for more proposals to be rejected than those accepted given the paucity of time.’
‘The proposals are evaluated in a series of meetings of the committee comprising eminent people in art, culture, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography among others. It examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and visual impact before making its recommendations,’ they added.