Mumbai: The NCP and Shiv Sena on Thursday targeted Centre for rejecting Maharashtra's tableau for the Republic Day parade, with the Sharad Pawar-led party dubbing the move an insult to the state. However, the state BJP said that in the past Maharashtra's tableau had not featured in the January 26 parade many times.
Republican Party of India leader and Union minister Ramdas Athawale said he would see to it that the state's tableau figured in the procession. NCP MP Supriya Sule claimed the Centre has denied permission to the tableaux from the non-BJP-ruled Maharashtra and West Bengal, adding the Modi government was behaving in a "prejudiced" manner.
She said the two states had played a key role in the freedom struggle and the decision to deny permission to their tableaux was an "insult" of the people. "The Centre has rejected permissions to the tableaux of Maharashtra and West Bengal from parading on Republic Day.
It is a festival of the country and the Centre is expected to give representation to all the states," Sule tweeted. "But the government is behaving in a prejudiced manner, giving step motherly treatment to the states being ruled by opposition parties," she added.
The Parliamentarian from Baramati also shared a news report that claims that the Defence Ministry has rejected West Bengal's tableau for the Republic Day parade (on January 26). "You will have to explain why the tableaux of the two states were rejected. The chief minister of Maharashtra should probe the matter. It has to be found out who is responsible for this. Are there elements having loyalty to previous government? There may not be. But this has to be probed," Sena MP Sanjay Raut told a Marathi news channel.
Sule and Raut were responding to reports that the Ministry of Defence has selected 22 tableaux out of 56 proposals for the Republic Day parade. The selected tableau will feature 16 states and Union territories and six Central ministries.
Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad said the decision to reject the tableau has hurt the "asmita" (self-respect) of people of the state. The state BJP, however, said that Sule and Raut were misleading the people.
@BJP4Maharashtra, the state BJP's Twitter handle, pointed out that Maharashtra's tableau had not figured in the parade on many occasions in the past. "Centre invites entries from 32 states of which 16 are selected rotation-wise. Along with it, eight central ministries are also selected...making the total count 24," it said.
"Maharashtra's tableau was not selected even earlier as well. In 1972, 1987, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2013 and 2016 Maharashtra's tableau was not selected," the party said. "Except two years, Congress was in power at the Centre as well as in the state during these years," the party added, asking why, then, the Narendra Modi government was being targeted.
BJP ally and Union minister Ramdas Athawale said he will try to ensure that Maharashtra's tableau made it to the annual event. "I have no information so far whether Maharashtra's tableau will be there for the Republic Day Parade or not...but I will try to see that the tableau is there. "This is not a political issue," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice in a statement.
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