Republic Day Tableaux & Regional Pride

We have recently seen letters being written by state CMs about exclusion of their state’s tableaux in the Republic Day Parade. 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.

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.

First of all, it is not the Modi Government which decides on the tableaux. The tableaux proposals received from various states and central ministries are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee comprising of eminent people in the field of art, culture, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc. The Expert Committee examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and visual impact before making its recommendations.

Due to time constraints, only some of the proposals can be accepted. For e.g. for the Republic Day Parade 2022, a total of 56 proposals were received from states and central ministries. Out of these 56, 21 proposals have been shortlisted. It is natural for more proposals to be rejected than those accepted given the paucity of time.

The proposals of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were rejected by the Subject Expert Committee after due process and due deliberations. 

It should be however noted that the tableaux proposals of Kerala were accepted through the same process and system under the same Modi Government in 2018 and 2021.

Similarly the tableaux proposals of Tamil Nadu were accepted through the same process and system under the same Modi Government in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

It should be also noted that the tableaux proposals of West Bengal were accepted through the same process and system under the same Modi Government in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Furthermore, this year’s tableau of CPWD includes Netaji Subhaschandra Bose, so the question of his insult does not even arise.