New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy over the non-inclusion of tableaux of certain states in the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday wrote to Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu asserting that it is an experts committee that decides on the R-Day tableaux and not the government.
The letter by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin comes after proposals of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were rejected by the Subject Expert Committee after due process and due deliberations.
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Singh, in his letter, clarified that out of 29 design proposals from states and Union Territories, 12 were accepted by the experts committee.
Responding to Banerjee's letter written on December 16 stating that the tableau with Subhash Chandra Bose theme was excluded from the Republic Day parade, Singh said that the Modi government has decided to kickstart Republic Day celebrations from January 23 in high regards to that contributions of Netaji.
Jan 23 is the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose and PM Modi has announced that from now Republic Day celebrations will start from this date and end on Jan 30.
"I would like to bring it your kind attention that there exists a well-established system for selection of tableaux for participation in the Republic Day parade, as per which the Ministry of Defence invites proposals for tableaux from all states/UTs and central ministries/departments," the Defence Minister wrote.
Singh also pointed out to Mamata Banerjee that West Bengal tableaux were part of 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021 parades and reminded Stalin that Tamil Nadu had representation in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Even the tableau proposals of Kerala was accepted through the same process and system under the same Modi government in 2018 and 2021.
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In his letter to Stalin, the Union Minister pointed out that the selection of tableaux is done as per fixed guidelines and Tamil Nadu's design cleared the first three rounds of meetings, but ut could not make it to the final list of 12 selected tableaux.
Meanwhile, Centre too responded to the criticism by state governments over the issue saying that it is a wrong precedent adopted by the Chief Ministers to portray an outcome of an objective process as a flashpoint between the Central and states governments.
It also claimed that this goes a long way in harming the country's federal structure.