Centre won’t budge, Stalin says will parade tableau across TN

Selection of tableaux for this year's Republic Day parade has been done as per the prescribed guidelines, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday, a day after Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about the exclusion of his state's model.

In a letter to Modi, Stalin said the rejection was ''disappointing'' and would deeply hurt the sentiments and patriotic feelings of the people of the state.

Responding to Stalin, the defence minister wrote a letter to the chief minister saying the proposal from Tamil Nadu was considered in the first three rounds of selection meetings but could not make it into the final list of 12 tableaux selected for participation in the RDP-2022.

''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/union territories and central ministries/departments,'' Singh said.

The tableaux proposals received from various states, union territories, central ministries and departments are evaluated in a series of meetings of an expert committee comprising eminent persons in the field of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc, the minister added. ''The expert committee examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and its visual impact before making its recommendations,'' he noted.

As per the time slot allotted for tableaux in the overall duration of the parade, shortlisting of tableaux is done by the expert committee, he mentioned.

For RDP-2022 (Republic Day parade-2022), a total of 29 proposals were received from states and union territories including from Tamil Nadu, he said. ''The tableaux from the state government of Tamil Nadu was considered in the first three rounds of meetings. After the third round of meeting, the tableaux could not make it into the final list of 12 tableaux selected for participation in the RDP-2022,'' Singh stated.

However, during the last few years, the tableaux from Tamil Nadu has been selected for participation in RDP-2017, RDP-2019, RDP-2020 and RDP-2021, Singh noted.

''In view of the above details, you would appreciate that the selection of tableaux is as per the prescribed guidelines on the matter,'' he mentioned.

Before Stalin, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Sunday shot off a letter to Modi on the exclusion of the state's tableau from the parade. The Kerala government had on Friday protested the exclusion of its tableau depicting social reformer Sree Narayana Guru.