NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) alleged on Thursday that the rejection of the tableau proposals of certain states for the Republic Day parade shows the "deep contempt" of the BJP-led Centre for "federalism and the socio-cultural traditions" of the country's freedom struggle.
The tableau proposals of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were rejected by the subject expert committee for this year's Republic Day parade.
"The manner in which the tableaux presented by certain states for the Republic Day parade on January 26 has been rejected by the Centre reveals a lot about the mindset of the BJP rulers."
"The rejection of the tableaux of the state governments of Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu shows the deep contempt for federalism and the socio-cultural traditions of the freedom struggle," the latest editorial in the CPI-M's mouthpiece, People's Democracy, said.
It also questioned the rejection of West Bengal's tableau, depicting the role of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA) in the freedom struggle, when the overall theme of this year's parade is 75 years of independence.
The Tamil Nadu tableau had portrayed prominent freedom fighters from the state like V O Chidambaram and Subramania Bharathiyar, the national poet of the freedom struggle.
Most shocking was the rejection of the Kerala tableau, which had a statue of Sree Narayana Guru, the great anti-caste fighter and renaissance figure.
It is reported that the expert committee wanted a statue of Adi Sankaracharya instead.
When the Kerala government stuck to depicting Narayana Guru, the entry was rejected.
"How an 8th-century AD religious figure, who restored the brahminical order, is more relevant than an early 20th-century social reformer, who contributed to the renaissance and the freedom movement, can only be explained by the Hindutva outlook of the ruling establishment," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said.
Replying to the letters of the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu chief ministers protesting against the exclusion of their state tableaux, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said there is a well-established system in place and the selection process was fair.
Singh had also said the expert committee in charge of the selection of tableaux for the Republic Day parade consists of eminent persons from the fields of art, culture, music, architecture and so on.
The editorial also accused the Centre of having a "partisan and sectarian outlook, which has led to practically the entire south India not being represented in the tableaux at the Republic Day parade".
"The motivated rejection of the tableaux of three opposition state governments shows the deep anti-federal attitude of the government. January 26 marks the advent of the Indian republic and the Constitution, which defines India as a Union of states. The Modi government is violating this basic precept of the Constitution," the Left party said.