Centre no to Bose tableau, Didi fumes

Mamata writes to PM saying the rejection of the tableau will cause pain to people of West Bengal.

Kolkata: Expressing shock over the Centre’s decision to exclude West Bengal’s tableau, which was set to highlight contributions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary year, from the upcoming Republic Day Parade in Delhi, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to reconsider the decision.

Banerjee also said that no reason was cited for the tableau’s rejection – a move which would cause “pain” to the people of her state.

“I have been profoundly shocked and hurt by the decision of the Government of India to abruptly exclude the proposed tableau of the Government of West Bengal from the ensuing Republic Day Parade. It is even more baffling for us that the tableau was rejected without assigning any reasons or justifications,” Banerjee said in a two-page letter to Modi.

She pointed out that the tableau was set to commemorate Netaji and INA’s contributions to the freedom struggle, besides displaying portraits of the country’s “illustrious sons and daughters”. “The proposed tableau was commemorating the contributions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and was carrying portraits of some of the most illustrious sons and daughters of this country — Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo, Matangini Hazra, Nazrul, Birsa Munda and many patriots,” the CM said.

Banerjee said that exclusion of the tableau “amounts to belittling and undermining the freedom fighters”.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, when approached, said his party would never indulge in politics over patriots and icons.

“Some technical reasons might have prompted the rejection. Our government and the BJP know about the immense contributions of Netaji and look up to him as our icon and national hero. The BJP never does politics over patriots like Netaji. It is the TMC which is politicising the matter,” he added. — PTI