The Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena on Thursday hit out at the Centre for rejecting West Bengal's tableau proposals to showcase its schemes during the Republic Day parade, alleging it insulted the people of the state for protesting against the amended Citizenship Act.
Here’s what leaders from Trinamool Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) said on Centre’s decision:
- West Bengal Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Tapas Roy, accused the BJP-led central government of having a "vindictive" attitude towards the state. "Just because West Bengal has been opposing anti-people policies of the 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 told PTI.
- "Our proposals to showcase Kanyashree in 2015 and 'Ekata-i Sampriti' (unity is harmony) programme in 2018 during Republic Day parades were rejected," PTI quoted another state minister as saying.
- Baramati MP and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule accused the Centre of being prejudiced against opposition-ruled states. "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.
- A fuming Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut questioned the government as to how would it have reacted had Congress been in power at Centre.
BJP returns fire
- West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Dilip Ghosh said the tableau proposals were rejected as the state government didn't properly follow the rules and procedure regarding it. "The state government has not followed the rules. Other states have followed them, so their tableau proposals have been accepted. The TMC should stop doing politics on each and every issue," Ghosh said.
- BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu also termed the TMC's allegations as "baseless". "Everything is done as per the rules. There have been previous instances when West Bengal's tableaus were showcased. So this allegation of step-motherly treatment by the centre is baseless," Basu said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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