New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) slammed the Centre Thursday after it rejected West Bengal and Maharashtra’s tableau proposals for the Republic Day Parade. The parties alleged that the BJP-led Union Government has insulted the people of the two states.
Government sources, however, said the decision to include or exclude a tableau was purely merit-based.
The TMC said by rejecting Bengal’s proposal, the Centre insulted the people of the state for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). NCP and Shiv Sena claimed prejudice against Maharashtra.
West Bengal Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Tapas Roy accused the Centre of being ‘vindictive’ towards the state. “Just because West Bengal has been opposing anti-people policies of BJP government, a step-motherly treatment is being meted out to the state. As we have opposed anti-people laws like CAA, the Centre has rejected our tableau proposal,” Roy said.
NCP leader Surpiya Sule accused the Centre of being ‘prejudiced’. She said both Bengal and Maharashtra had played a key role in the freedom struggle and the decision to deny permission to their tableaux was an ‘insult’ to the people.
“The Centre has rejected permissions to the tableaux of Maharashtra and West Bengal from parading on Republic Day. It is a festival of the country and the Centre is expected to give representation to all the states,” Sule tweeted.
Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut wondered whether there was a political conspiracy behind the decision.
The Defence Ministry said Bengal’s proposal was examined by an expert committee twice.
“The tableau proposal of Government of West Bengal was not taken forward for further consideration by the expert committee after deliberations in the second meeting. It is pertinent to mention here that the tableau of Government of West Bengal was short-listed for participation in Republic Day Parade 2019 as an outcome of the same process,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry has selected the tableau proposals of 15 states and a union territory — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
PTI