After West Bengal, tableau of Maharashtra & Kerala too rejected by Centre for Republic Day parade

After West Bengal’s proposal for the tableau on Republic Day celebrations was rejected, proposals of two other non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states, Maharashtra and Kerala’s proposal too have been turned down.

Kerala had proposed a theme comprising traditional art form of Theyyam and Kalamandalam, depicting its art and architecture. Bihar’s proposal too has been turned down.

Maharashtra, ruled by the Shiv Sena and National Congress Party (NCP), has accused the BJP-led Central government of bias and sought an explanation.

NCP leader Supriya Sule in a series of tweets in Marathis said that the Republic Day is a “festival of the country” and the Centre is expected to let all states be represented in it. “The government is prejudiced. It is showing step-motherly treatment to states ruled by opposition parties,” her tweet read, that also mentioned how the Bengal tableau too was rejected this year.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was reported saying that the Centre must explain why the tableaux of two states were rejected, and that the CM of Maharashtra should probe the matter. “It has to be found out who is responsible for this,” Raut said.

The Centre announced the list of states and departments that had made it successfully to the list of those who will participate in the Republic Day celebrations. The tableau proposals are examined by an “expert committee” in two rounds of meeting before coming to the conclusion. There were 22 proposals from 16 states and union territories and six ministries/departments shortlisted. This was selected from a total 56 tableau proposals (32 from states/Union Territories and 24 from Central ministries and departments) that the government received. The selection is made on the basis of theme, concept, design and visual impact.

BJP lost its control of Maharashtra in the recent Assembly elections in which the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena came together to form the government. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee has been opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) for the past few weeks, with Banerjee leading protests and rallies almost every day.

While Banerjee herself did not comment on this matter yet, her party MP Saugata Roy has said that Bengal not being selected for the Republic Day tableau is “discriminatory”. The state won the first prize among all tableaux twice in the recent past – in 2014 and 2016.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that India’s diversity cannot be depicted excluding states like Maharashtra, Bengal, Kerala, Delhi, Bihar and Haryana. However, officials of the Central government were quoted saying that there was no politics in this and proposals from BJP-ruled states had been rejected too. These include Haryana, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.