Rajnath Singh writes to Bengal, Tamil Nadu CMs amid row over rejected Republic Day tableaux

New Delhi, Jan 18: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin, asserting that decisions to select tableaux for the Republic Day parade are taken as per due process and deliberations.

"Tamil Nadu's tableaux could not make it into the final list of 12 tableaux selected for participation in the Republic Day Parade," Rajnath Singh in a reply to Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin's letter over the exclusion of State's tableaux from R-Day parade.

"This is also to bring to your kind info that during the last few years, tableaux from the State govt of Tamil Nadu has been selected for participation in R-Day during 2017, 2019,2020, & 2021," he further added.

A total of 56 proposals had come from states and central ministries and out of these 21 were shortlisted.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K 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 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 tableau proposals of West Bengal were accepted in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021, they said.