The Centre has rejected the states' allegation that exclusion of their tableaux from the Republic Day parade was an insult, saying it is a wrong precedent and stressed that it is an expert committee that makes the shortlist.
"This is a wrong precedent, adopted by CMs of states to portray an outcome of an objective process as flashpoint between the centre and the states. This goes a long way in harming the country’s federal structure. Perhaps the CMs have no positive agenda of their own that they have to resort to the same old trick using misinformation year after year," the government sources said.
"This is unmistakably linked to regional pride and projected as an insult to the people of the state by the Central government. This script also plays out almost every year," it added.
The statement noted that a total of 56 proposals had come from states and central ministries and out of these 21 were shortlisted. The proposals of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were rejected by the subject expert committee after due process and deliberations.
"It is natural for more proposals to be rejected than those accepted given the paucity of time," sources said.
Defence Ministry officials, according to a PTI report, a similar process of selection is adopted every year.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the omission of their states' tableaux and sought his intervention.
Excluding the tableau would deeply hurt the sentiments and patriotic feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu, Stalin said. Expressing shock over the exclusion of West Bengal's tableau, which focussed on Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary year, Banerjee said such a move would cause "pain" to the people of her state. Several politicians in Kerala have also taken up the issue of the exclusion of its tableau to criticise the Centre.
It should be, however, noted that the tableau proposals of Kerala were accepted through the same process and system under the same Modi government in 2018 and 2021, and those of Tamil Nadu in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021, the statement said, adding that the tableau proposals of West Bengal were accepted in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021.
READ MORE: After Mamata, Tamil Nadu CM writes to PM Modi as Republic Day tableau row intensifies
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